Nephritogenic glycoprotein X. Correlation between the purity of nephritogenic glycopeptide, nephritogenoside, and morphological manifestation of glomerulonephritis.

When triglycosyl glycopeptide ( nephritogenoside ) was contaminated with glucosyl, galactosyl, mannosyl, and heteropolysaccharide glycopeptide, a mixed lesion of proliferative glomerulonephritis ( PGN ) with immunofluorescent mesangial pattern and membranous glomerulonephritis (MG) with immunofluorescent granular pattern resulted. It was concluded that PGN was caused by the presence of nephritogenoside and MG by the presence of the heteropolysaccharide glycopeptide in the crude nephritogenic glycopeptide mixtures derived from various solubilization steps used to treat the kidney extracts. Trichloroacetic acid treatment of crude nephritogenic glycopeptide mixtures precipitated the heteropolysaccharide glycopeptide of the MG-inducing factor, thus permitting the separation of nephritogenoside from the heteropolysaccharide glycopeptide by a rather simple technique. Both the heteropolysaccharide glycopeptide and Heymann's antigen (so-called tubular antigen) have a common antigenic substance, but we cannot conclude, at the present state, that both substances are chemically the same. The degree of contamination of pure nephritogenoside by this substance that is antigenically the same as Heymann's antigen (in pure nephritogenoside ) can be chemically and accurately determined, based on the evidence that pure nephritogenoside is a glycopeptide having only three glucose residues as the sugar moiety, that is, by estimating the amount of contaminated monosaccharide components such as galactose, mannose, and N-acetylglucosamine.