NEPHRITOGENIC IMMUNOPATHOLOGIC MECHANISMS AND HUMAN RENAL-TRANSPLANTS - PROBLEM OF RECURRENT GLOMERULONEPHRITIS

Certain principles and recent data which concern the general problem of recurrent glomerulonephritis are emphasized in this editorial. Extensive experimental immunopathology and well-documented studies of human renal transplantations attest to the validity of these principles and the real risk to some grafts. Present inability to predict precisely the certainty of recurrent clinical disease precludes confident, arbitrary prohibitions about the suitability of potential recipients, acceptable risks and possible organ wastage. Accumulated experiences with renal transplantation have emphasized several apparent enigmas in present nephrology, including the morphologic and immunopathogenetic variants of membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, focal sclerosing glomerulopathy and glomerular diseases in grafts. Continued, systematic and innovative use of experimental and laboratory techniques is necessary in the study of these problems so that the interrelationships and quantitative importance of contributory variables to operative humoral mechanisms may ultimately be established.