What
is the Cause of Glomerulonephritis?
(If
the index is not shown on your left hand side: click here)
According
to current concepts glomerulonephritis is an immunologic disease. Immune complex
formation, the reaction between antibody and
antigen, is said to occur in the glomeruli, the microscopic globular capillary filters of the
kidney. When immune
complexes are formed, various enzymes in the blood and on the surface of the
cells, the so-called complement
factors, are activated by the reaction, and the complement factors together
with other chemical processes that are initiated by them, allegedly destroy the
glomerular filtering apparatus and sooner or later the whole kidney.
In a particular type of glomerulonephritis called
minimal change nephropathy it is not the formation of
immune complexes that is considered detrimental, but the white blood
cellsī production of lymphokines.
One of their effects is that they increase the permeability
of the glomerular basement
The above is a very simple presentation of the current view. In the following I shall give some more detailed explanations and arguments for the concept. Authoritative and comprehensive reviews can be found elsewhere (Dixon 1968, Wilson & Dixon 1981, Cameron 1982, Couser 1993, Couser 1998, Couser 1999). However, to follow my arguments for the new toxic-allergic hypothesis it is not necessary to understand all details of the immunological concept.
As I shall demonstrate in the following, there are numerous experimental and clinical observations that are in serious conflict with the classical concept. The aim of this website is to question this concept and to present a new theory about the causation of glomerulonephritis, in particular to explain why the disease in some patients proceeds to renal failure and how it may be possible to stop and even reverse this process. The theory and the numerous studies that support it, have been presented in medical journals since many years. By unknown reasons the issue has gained little interest among nephrologists and little is mentioned about the subject in the textbooks.
In the present review I have concentrated on the association between hydrocarbon exposure and glomerulonephritis because this is the area that has been studied most thoroughly and this is also the most widespread type of toxic exposure. Among other chemicals that have been associated with glomerulonephritis are silicon, mercury, lithium and gold. Many drugs are known to be able to induce glomerulonephritis also; the most important ones are a type of pain-killers called non-steroidal-antiinflammatory-drugs, or NSAID, but also lithium and certain antibiotics. In the following I shall discuss the importance of silicon compounds and NSAID. Hopefully I shall be able to update the website later on with more information about other types of toxic exposure.
Next section: Arguments and Counter-Arguments for the Classical Concept