EXPERIMENTAL NEPHRITIS IN RATS INDUCED BY INJECTION OF ANTI-KIDNEY SERUM : III. PATHOLOGICAL STUDIES OF THE ACUTE AND CHRONIC DISEASE

Administration of the relatively organ specific antibody, so called nephrotoxin, present in anti-kidney serum, is followed by a diffuse glomerulonephritis. This is characterized early by swelling of the intercapillary substance of the glomerular tuft and by tubular degeneration. Fibrin thrombi are only present in the glomerular capillaries when the injection of anti-kidney serum results in a severe anaphylactoid reaction, and are due to factors other than nephrotoxin. The urinary abnormalities which develop in all rats after a suitable injection of nephrotoxin usually continue until the animal dies or is sacrificed. Microscopic renal lesions of the early phase merge into scarring of the glomeruli and tubules. Histological study of those animals which die from 3 to 11 months after treatment reveals a chronic progressive glomerulonephritis with generalized vascular lesions.