We studied splenic macrophage reticuloendothelial function in 18 patients with
idiopathic membranous nephropathy and eight patients with mesangio-capillary
glomerulonephritis by measuring the clearance from the circulation of
technetium labelled, autologous, antibody coated erythrocytes (
IgG cells) or heat damaged erythrocytes (HDE). Nine of 15 rhesus-D positive patients with
membranous nephropathy had delayed clearance of the
IgG cells and the defect did not correlate with disease activity. Circulating
immune complexes were not detected in any of the patients with
membranous nephropathy. The defect in clearance of the
IgG cells in the membranous patients was associated with the presence of
HLA-B8 and DR3. In the mesangio-capillary
glomerulonephritis patients, the clearance rates of the
IgG cells were fast-normal in six and enhanced in two, and correlated with the clearance of HDE. The clearance rates of the cells in this group correlated with the degree of hypocomplementaemia but not with the disease activity nor HLA haplotype.