Nephrotic Syndrome from the Perspective of Immunology

It is well known that nephrotic syndrome is characterized by three highs and one low. However what is nephrotic syndrome from the perspective of immunology?

According to immunology, there are about 95% kidney diseases are caused by immune disorders and the occurring of nephrotic syndrome has much to do with the immune system and this is very crucial for solving the high recurrent rate of nephrotic syndrome because it is the underlying cause.

Due to immune disorders or immune dysfunctions, the immune complex can not be killed by the immune system or removed out of the body. Instead they are left in the body and will circulate with the blood. Since there are specific binding sites in the kidneys, these immune complexes will deposit and accumulate in the kidneys. As a resistance to these immune complexes, large amount of immune cells and inflammatory medium including mononuclear macrophage neutrophils, eosinophils, and platelet will infiltrate the kidneys and want to eliminate these foreign substances out of the kidneys. However at the same time the normal renal cells and tissues are also impaired. When the barrier function (charge barrier and mechanical barrier) is damaged, the permeability of glomerular filtration membrane will be increased and there will be large amount of protein pass through the membrane and when it beyond the re-absorption ability of the distal convoluted tubules, there will massive protein leaked in urine and form proteinuria.

Long term loss of large amount of protein in urine will cause many health problems and it will in turn aggravate the already damaged filtration membrane, therefore it is very important to alleviate protein in urine. Since we have known the root cause of proteinuria, the treatments should be more effective and targeted. That is to repair the damaged glomerular filtration membrane, recovering kidney functions, rectifying immune disorder and enhancing immunity. In this regard, immunotherapy is a good choice because it goes further to deal with the root problem besides inhibiting the immune reactions.