Experimental glomerular lesions induced by chronic immune complex formation. I. Formation and elimination of the immune complex (relationship between the immune status and the glomerular changes).

Chronic immune complex formation was induced in rabbits by daily administration of 12.5 g bovine serum. In good antibody producer animals immediate immune complex production and elimination from the circulation were demonstrable. This was followed within a few minutes by the appearance of free 125I in fairly large amounts in blood, as a sign of immediate phagocytosis and disintegration of the 125I-labelled immune complexes. Phagocytic activity decreased in the host animal during chronic heteroprotein administration in every case. The earliest glomerular changes were those of exudative glomerulonephritis, the extent of which depended on the antibody productivity of the animal. Persistent immunocomplexaemia induced by administration of the antigen over 60 and 100 days, respectively, resulted in mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis in 7, in membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis in 3, and in membraneous glomerulonephritis in 1 out of 11 laboratory animals.