| Abstract: | To determine whether patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and active nephritis have more profound defects in cellular immune responses, we studied cell-mediated immunity (CMI) in 12 patients with lupus nephritis (LN) and 11 patients with chronic mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (CGN) without renal insufficiency. The LN patients had a significant depression in CMI, characterized by impaired delayed hypersensitivity skin reactivity to keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH), decreased percentage of T cells and diminished lymphocyte transformation to phytohaemagglutinin (PHA). The levels of concanavalin A (Con A)-induced suppressor cell activity (SCA) were significantly lower in LN patients compared with those in normal controls and those in CGN patients. The levels of all CMI parameters for the 6 LN patients with the nephrotic syndrome (NS) were significantly more decreased when compared with those of the 6 LN patients without NS. In contrast, the CMI levels in CGN patients with or without NS did not differ from normal subjects. These findings may lend further insight into the understanding of the immunoregulatory defect in LN. |
