Abstract
Receptors for activated C3 have recently been demonstrated to be present in glomeruli of normal human kidneys. In the present communication, the precise location of these receptors within the renal corpuscle was studied with scanning electron microscopy. By this technique, the glomerular complement receptor (GCR) was found to be located on the visceral epithelial cell of the renal corpusle. This epithelial cell location was confirmed by comparison of in vitro GCR activity with the location of immunoglobulin and C3 deposited in vivo. Renal tissues in which Ig and C3 had been deposited in vivo diffusely in subepithelial loci had no in vitro GCR activity. Renal biopsies not showing Ig or C3 deposition or biopsies with Ig and C3 in the mesangium retained GCR activity. These results further confirm an important role for GCR in the trapping and deposition of C3 in some forms of immunologically mediated renal disease.
Footnotes
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↵1 This work was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant GB 38628, United States Public Health Service Research, Grant 5RO1 A102566-17 from the National Institutes of Health to Manfred M. Mayer, and Army Contract AMD 17-C-4063.
- Received October 11, 1976.
- Copyright © 1977 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc.
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