[Cellular immune deficiency in patients with chronic glomerulonephritis].

In our previous work we found quantitative changes in peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations (decrease in total T lymphocytes, increase in T suppressor cells and monocytes) in patients with idiopathic chronic glomerulonephritis (CGN). The aim of this study was the functional state of the immune response (lymphocyte proliferation and cytokine secretion in vitro) in order to characterize the cellular immune defects and their changes under immunomodulatory therapy. We studied 34 patients with active CGN, divided in groups treated by IVIG or combined corticosteroid and immunosuppressive therapy. We found decreased proliferative ability of PBMNC to mitogen as well as to antigen. There were increased basal production of TNF and sIL-2R and lack of increase of LPS-induced IL-1 in vitro. These deviations suggest a deficiency in cellular immune response in patients with chronic GN which was influenced by immunomodulatory therapy alongside with beneficial clinical effect.