What Causes Membranous Nephropathy

Before the treatment, the first thing that should be made clear is how Membranous Nephropathy happens. Membranous Nephropathy is notable for its clinical presence of proteinuria, edema and swelling. The symptoms occur due to damage on glomerular filtering cells. Causes that trigger the occurrence of Membranous Nephropathy are so many, and for the treatment of the disease, the first step is to deal with the underlying cause of the disease.

What causes Membranous Nephropathy? What is the proper treatment for Membranous Nephropathy?

About two thirds of Membranous Nephropathy is what is called “idiopathic”. This means that no cause can be identified. The remaining one third cases of the disease are associated with other conditions, usually diseases which are caused by a disturbance in the immune system. The problem is caused by an autoimmune attack on the cells within the glomerulus that makes the glomerular basement membrane, known as podocytes. Autoimmune means that the damage is caused by body’s immune system.

About a quarter of cases of Membranous Nephropathy are caused by these conditions: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), arthritis, infections, Nephrotoxic medicines and tumors.

Membranous Nephropathy is a pathological diagnosis of the disease which is confirmed from presence in renal biopsy. In Membranous Nephropathy, deposition of immune complex on glomerular capillaries thickens glomerular basilar cells and impairs glomerular filtering cells. The occurrence of idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome is thought to be associated to a kind of antibody---PLA2R. The PLA2R antibody combines with antigens on glomerular epithelial cells, thus forming immune complexes. The immune complexes don’t damage kidneys directly, instead, they attract inflammatory factors to gather around which mistakingly harm the functioning kidney cells.

Before clinical treatment, diagnosing the amount of immune complex, the immune status and immune response activity extent is important, which will guide suitable medicine prescriptions to stop the inflammatory damage on the kidneys, remit symptoms and stop immune complex from activating abnormal inflammatory kidney injury. For the patients, as long as the inflammation is controlled and illness condition stabilized, there are chances of restoring the immune system and recovering from the disease state. Recurrences mean that inflammations are still in active state which will harm the kidneys. Understanding the underlying renal condition by the mentioned tests will help the doctors to make adjustments of treatment to control the disease.