[Immunological studies in a case of congenital nephrotic syndrome with focal extracapillary proliferative glomerulonephritis (author's transl)].
An immunological study in a case of nephrotic syndrome in early infancy with mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis with focal crescents revealed deficiencies in humoral and cellular immunity. Serum Ig-G antibody levels such as pertussis-agglutinins, tetanus and diophtheria-antitoxing were decreased. A loss of tetanus antibodies in the urine could be observed. The production of tetanus-antibodies after immunogenic stimulation with tetanus-antigen was not diminished. The loss of Ig-A in the urine might have been compensated by a higher synthesis rate, which could also be the cause of the increased serum levels of Ig-M, since a loss of Ig-M in urine was not observed. The diminished serum levels of Ig-G antibodies were considered not only to be the result of loss, but possibly also of higher catabolism, and an insufficient compensation by a higher rate of synthesis. The percentage of T-cells in peripheral blood was found to be low. Stimulation of lymphocytes with PHA was at first normal, but in the last investigations diminished. Special experiments lead to the assumption, that this partial defect of cellular immunity might be the result of lacking or diminution of nutritive plasmafactors.