Enhanced presence of thrombomodulin in the glomeruli of lupus glomerulonephritis.

The intraglomerular presence of thrombomodulin (TM) was examined in 19 patients with lupus glomerulonephritis (GN). TM is a cell surface glycoprotein found on endothelial cells and plays a key role in the protein C anticoagulant pathway. Renal biopsy specimens of patients with lupus GN and several kinds of renal disease other than lupus GN, i.e., membranous GN, IgA GN, minimal change nephrotic syndrome (MCNS) and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) were examined by indirect immunofluorescence, using three kinds of monoclonal antibodies against human TM: KA-2, KA-3 and KA-4. It has been reported that KA-3 and KA-4 bind to enzyme-digested TM as well as intact TM, while KA-2 recognizes intact TM only. In the glomeruli from both normal subjects and patients with MCNS, only very weak staining of TM was found. Patients with HUS showed negative TM staining in the glomeruli. In contrast, positive to strongly positive staining of KA-2 as well as of KA-3 and KA-4 was observed mainly along the capillary wall of glomeruli from patients with lupus GN. Some patients with non-lupus GN showed positive staining of these monoclonal antibodies, but the staining was far more intense in most patients with lupus GN than in the patients with non-lupus GN. Staining of albumin and transferrin by the indirect method was negative in all cases of lupus GN that showed positive staining of TM. There was no relationship between the intensity of TM staining and the degree of proteinuria, creatinine clearance or histologic types of lupus GN.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)