Electron microscopic studies of experimental nephritis with ferritin-conjugated antibody. Localization of antigen-antibody complexes in rabbit glomeruli following repeated injections of bovine serum albumin.

Acute, subacute, and chronic glomerulonephritis, similar in certain features to human glomerulonephritis, has been produced in rabbits by repeated injections of bovine serum albumin. The ratio of antigen to antibody was the factor determining the development and type of glomerulonephritis. This is in confirmation of the observations of Dixon, Feldman, and Vazquez. With the aid of the ferritin antibody technique it was shown that antigen aggregates (probably antigen-antibody complexes) are present in the blood, cross the endothelium and the basement membrane, and accumulate as dense deposits between the basement membrane and the epithelial cytoplasm. In the deposits electron-dense aggregates formed by antigen or by antigen-antibody complexes and material which might be other endogenous proteins may be identified. In rabbits dead of anaphylactic shock following injection of bovine serum albumin, dense material was found within glomerular capillaries, presumably formed by the embolic deposition of antigen-antibody complexes, since the immunofluorescein and immunoferritin techniques demonstrated the presence of both BSA and rabbit globulin.