complement activation and the kidney

[Guest guest]

Suppose, over the years of taking vitamins to get well, you have

developed an allergy to a filler or caking agent. Suppose these

allergic reaction occurs in the kidney stimulating the production of

urine, resulting in dehydration and hypotension. Renal inflamation

could acually cause a form of nutrient wasting whereby the unknown

chemicals in the nutrients you were taking to get better are actually

causing nutrient depletion by stimulating the kidneys. Is is a wild

idea? Maybe not?

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Nephrologie 1999;20(7):377-82

The local production of complement in the pathogenesis of renal

inflammation.

Sheerin NS, Sacks SH

Department of Nephrology and Transplantation, Guy's Hospital Medical

and Dental School, King's College, London.

The deposition of complement components is a feature of many immune

mediated human glomerular diseases. Experimental models provide

evidence that complement activation within the glomerulus has a

pathogenic role in immune complex and antibody mediated

glomerulonephritis. It was thought that the complement components

deposited within the kidney were derived from the systemic

circulating pool. However, recent work has shown that the kidney is

able to produce many of the components of the complement cascade. In

vitro work has shown that cells of glomerular and tubular origin can

produce complement, as can inflammatory cells present within the

kidney during inflammation. Analysis of human biopsy material has

shown that expression of complement genes is increased during

inflammatory renal disease implicating local complement synthesis as

a potential source of complement components. At present no direct

evidence for a pathogenic role of local complement synthesis exists.

In this review we consider the current experimental evidence which

suggests that local production of complement may be contributing to

renal injury in a variety of diseases.