Distribution of familial nephritis antigen in normal tissue and renal basement membranes of patients with homozygous and heterozygous Alport familial nephritis. Relationship of familial nephritis and Goodpasture antigens to novel collagen chains and type IV collagen.

The glomerular basement membranes (GBM) of Alport familial nephritis (FN) are laminated and split and fail to bind Goodpasture autoantibodies by indirect immunofluorescence. The Goodpasture antigen has been localized to multiple peptides of the noncollagenous C terminal (NC1) domain of type IV collagen. The principal target antigen is a 28-kDa peptide (M28) that coisolates with type IV collagen NC1 and which is derived from a larger collagenous molecule. We have shown that two novel 28-kDa peptides found in normal GBM (M28M28+) are absent from collagenase digests of X-linked dominant Alport FN GBM and that monoclonal antibodies specific for these collagen chains fail to bind to Alport GBM. In normal tissue these chains have a distribution restricted to specific basement membranes of kidney, eye, inner ear, lung, and brain, the former three of which are affected in Alport FN. Epitopes on a 26-kDa NC1 peptide identified by an antibody from a transplanted Alport patient (FN antibody) colocalized with the 28-kDa components in these tissues. The FN antibody did not bind to the GBM of homozygous Alport males. Antibodies to the 28-kDa peptides and the FN antibody colocalized in a segmental pattern in heterozygous Alport GBM by indirect immunofluorescence and were unrelated to the normal distribution of type IV collagen. Three of eight homozygous Alport FN tissues showed the presence of the 28-kDa components in Bowman's capsule in a focal distribution, and in four of eight tissues reactive antigen was present in the cytoplasm of some parietal and visceral epithelial cells. These observations support the hypothesis that the genetic abnormality in Alport FN is a defective parent chain of the 26-kDa peptide, which results in failure of normal 28-kDa collagen chain integration.