Infantile nephrotic syndrome with diffuse mesangial sclerosis: a disturbance of glomerular basement membrane development?

Ultrastructural examinations of renal glomeruli in a case of diffuse mesangial sclerosis revealed a hitherto unknown type of alteration of the basement membranes ("cloudy pattern") which suggests a disturbance of glomerular basement membrane development as the basic mechanism which leads to therapy resistent infantile nephrotic syndrome.