Immune complex glomerulonephritis in experimental kala-azar. II: Detection and characterization of parasite antigens and antibodies eluted from kidneys of Leishmania donovani-infected hamsters

Abstract

In a previous report analysing kidney sections by immunofluorescence we showed that hamsters infected with L. donovani develop a glomerulonephritis (GN) associated with deposition of hamster immunoglobulins and parasite antigens in the glomeruli. In this study we characterize these immune components eluted from the kidneys. The eluted immunoglobulins showed specificity for L. donovani antigens and hamster immunoglobulins (rheumatoid factor-like activity). The four isotypes IgG1, IgG2, IgA and IgM were detected. Several L. donovani antigens were detected in the renal eluates by Western blot and immunoprecipitation using 125I-labelled eluates. Proteins with mol. wt of 134, 82, 52, 31, and 26 kD were detected by Western blot and proteins with 134, 110, 93, 89 and 48 kD were detected by immunoprecipitation. With the exception of the 134 kD protein which was recognized by both rabbit anti-promastigote and rabbit anti-amastigote sera all the others were recognized only by the anti-amastigote serum. The 134 kD protein was the only one isolated from the kidneys of infected hamster immunocomplexed with IgG and was the only one detected in a promastigote lysate using IgG from L. donovani-infected hamsters.