Intraglomerular fibronectin in rat experimental glomerulonephritis.

To clarify the mechanisms of glomerular pericapillary fibronectin deposition in human membranous nephropathy and mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis, intraglomerular fibronectin distribution was examined by light and electron microscopy using the experimental rat models of Heymann and nephrotoxic serum nephritis. As previously demonstrated by immunofluorescence microscopy (Pettersson and Colvin 1978; Ikeya et al. 1985, 1986), fibronectin was distributed in the mesangial areas and occasionally on percicapillary walls of normal glomeruli, while in nephrotoxic serum nephritis and Heymann nephritis, fibronectin was diffusely located along glomerular capillary walls as well as in the mesangium. By immunoelectron microscopy using the immunogold technique, fibronectin was also noted in the mesangial areas and the lamina densa of the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) in normal glomeruli. In nephrotoxic serum nephritis, fibronectin was seen around mesangial cells situated between endothelial cells and the GBM, suggesting that pericapillary fibronectin in nephrotoxic serum nephritis reflects mesangial extension. However, in Heymann nephritis, it was found uniformly in the lamina rara interna, lamina densa and lamina rara externa of the GBM, indicating no specific relation to glomerular cells. When sections of normal and both experimental nephritis kidneys were incubated with fluorescein isothiocyanate conjugated with rat plasma fibronectin, a linear pattern of fluorescein staining along the glomerular capillary walls was observed in Heymann nephritis but not in normal or nephrotoxic serum nephritic rats. The GBM in Heymann nephritis would thus appear to have an affinity for plasma fibronectin. Based on the above findings, fibronectin in the GBM of rats with Heymann nephritis may reasonably be concluded to originate from the plasma.