Studies on excretion of renal antigens in normal and pathological urine.

The report deals with attempts to identify and quantitate renal antigens excreted into the urine of normal subjects and patients with renal disease. Although no useful information was obtained on the possible excretion of glomerular basement membrane antigens, renal tubular epithelial antigen (RTE) proved to be interesting. Curiously, massive excretion of RTE occurred most prominently in cases of 'minimal change' disease. In addition, a correlation between the selectivity of the proteinuria and excretion of RTE was noted. In general there did not seem to be any relation between RTE excretion and tubular/interstitial lesions.