Experimental glomerulonephritis in the rat induced by antibodies directed against tubular antigens. II. Influence of medication with prednisone and azathioprine: a histologic and immunohistologic study at the light microscopic and the ultrastructural level

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of the administration of prednisone and azathioprine on an experimental immune complex glomerulonephritis is studied. During the observation period of 3 months, it appeared that prednisone had no effect either on the morphology of glomerulonephritis or on the proteinuria caused by it. Azathioprine, especially when given 4 days before or simultaneously with the induction of the experimental immune complex glomerulonephritis, showed a clear effect on the morphology of the glomerulonephritis as well as on the proteinuria. The damage to the glomerular basement membrane as a result of deposition of immune complexes was less and the proteinuria was significantly lower. The effect of azathioprine was not present when given 10 days after the induction of glomerulonephritis, at a time when the autologous phase had already developed.