Our case with IgA deficiency and membranous glomerulonephritis

Abstract

Sirs, I read with interest the Letter to the Editors, "IgA deficiency and membranous glomerulonephritis (MGN)," by Watanabe [1]. Watanabe suggested that the MGN affecting our patient with IgA deficiency and MGN is more likely to have resulted from in site immune complex formation caused by chronic immunological activation or cryptic autoimmune disease than from circulating immune complexes, given the pathological and laboratory findings obtained. I think that the content of the Letter by Watanabe is very important. In fact, the immunological studies of our patient at 7 years revealed the following: third component of complement (C3, normal range 69-128 mg/dl), 63 mg/dl; C4 (14-36 mg/dl), 5 mg/dl; CH50 (30-45 U/ml), 24 U/ml; anti-nuclear antibody titer, 40; anti-DNA antibody, 0 IU/l; anti-Sm antibody, 7.2 index (0-6.9); anti-SSA antibody 27.6 index (0-9.9); and anti-CL antibody 13.6 U/ml (0-9.9). Our patient met only two of the American College of Rheumatology's criteria for classification of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) [2], including positivity for anti-Sm antibody and proteinuria.We were thus unable to diagnose SLE. However, it is possible that clinical findings of SLE and other autoimmune diseases will appear. Yewdall et al. described a patient with IgA deficiency and idiopathic MGN who later developed SLE [3]. It will thus be necessary to perform long-term follow-up to determine whether our patient develops autoimmune diseases in the future. References 1. Watanabe T (2005) IgA deficiency and membranous glomerulonephritis. Pediatr Nephrol (http://dx.

Evaluation of Natural Regulatory T Cells in Subjects with Selective IgA Deficiency: From Senior Idea to Novel Opportunities

“…Many of these individuals have no apparent disease, whereas selected patients suffer from recurrent mucosal infections, allergies and autoimmune diseases [2,3,4]. Furthermore, unexplained coincidences between SIgAD and systemic autoimmune disorders such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, hemolytic anemia, thyroiditis, type 1 diabetes mellitus, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune glomerulonephritis were reported [5,6,7,8,9]. …”