Bovine serum albumin (BSA) nephritis in rats. IV. A sequential evaluation of mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS) function.

A clearance kinetic study of intravenously administered 125I-labeled aggregated human IgG (125I-AHIgG) from the circulation and its distribution in various organs was performed weekly during the course in a model of experimental immune complex glomerulonephritis which was induced in rats immunized 8 weeks previously with 6 times a week administration of 2 mg of bovine serum albumin (BSA) for 4 weeks from week 8 to 12. The removal rates of the injected 125I-AHIgG from the circulation were retarded in nonproteinuric rats of week 9 and 10, at almost every checked point (p-value was less than 0.01). The clearance in those rats with severe proteinuria returned to the level of the control and of rats in week 8. The distribution of 125I-AHIgG in the liver 4 hours after the administration revealed a considerable decrease in non-overt proteinuric rats of weeks 9, 10, and 11. A similar tendency of decreasing depositions of the radioactivity was shown in the spleen at each 4 hours. In contrast, the uptakes in the kidney and lung at the final week of 12 were larger. Delayed clearance from the circulation and a decreasing handle of the injected macromolecule in the liver and possibly in the spleen may suggest the presence of some impairment of the MPS function in the course of this experimental glomerulonephritis.