Relation of mesangial IgA glomerulonephritis to polymorphism of immunoglobulin heavy chain switch region.

A G Demaine; M Rambausek; J F Knight; D G Williams; K I Welsh; E Ritz

doi:10.1172/JCI113361

Department of Molecular Immunogenetics, Guy's Hospital, London, United Kingdom.

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Department of Molecular Immunogenetics, Guy's Hospital, London, United Kingdom.

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Department of Molecular Immunogenetics, Guy's Hospital, London, United Kingdom.

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Department of Molecular Immunogenetics, Guy's Hospital, London, United Kingdom.

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Department of Molecular Immunogenetics, Guy's Hospital, London, United Kingdom.

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Department of Molecular Immunogenetics, Guy's Hospital, London, United Kingdom.

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Published in Volume 81, Issue 2 on February 1, 1988
J Clin Invest. 1988;81(2):611–614. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI113361.
© 1988 The American Society for Clinical Investigation

Published February 1, 1988 - Version history

We have investigated the switch regions of Ig heavy chain genes of patients with IgA glomerulonephritis (IgA-GN) using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Genomic DNA from patients and controls was digested with the restriction endonuclease Sst I and transferred to nylon membranes using the Southern blot procedure and hybridized with a probe homologous to the switch region of the Ig C mu gene (S mu) which detects RFLPs in both S mu and the switch region of the Ig C alpha 1 gene (S alpha 1). A significant decrease in the frequency of the 2.6;2.1 kb heterozygous S mu phenotype was found in patients with IgA-GN (P = 0.003). With respect to the S alpha 1 region, there was a significant increase in the frequency of the 7.4 kb S alpha 1 phenotype (P = 0.002). In addition, a significant increase in the frequency of the 7.4 kb S alpha 1 allele was found (P = 0.0002). These results suggest that gene(s) within the Ig heavy chain loci may be important in the pathogenesis of IgA-GN.

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