Acute glomerulonephritis in a donor as a side effect of allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell mobilization with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor

Following on from the recently published articles reported side effects occurring due to donation of stem cells, we describe a case of a donor with transient, biopsy-proved acute focal segmental proliferative glomerulonephritis (GN) due to peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) mobilization with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). A 44-year-old woman with no relevant past medical history suffering from obesity and hypertension well controlled with metoprolol without hypertensive retinopathy was admitted to our hospital as a donor of PBSC. She received G-CSF subcutaneously—filgrastim (Amgen)—at a dose of 5 μg/kg twice a day for 6 days. The macroscopic hematuria and proteinuria occurred on 5th day of G-CSF administration. Due to mobilization and collection of stem cells, proteinuria was becoming more intense and reached the nephrotic range. The immunological, infectious, urological and gynecological causes of such complication were excluded. The final histological recognition was early stage of focal segmental proliferative GN. To our knowledge this a first report of GN in a donor due to mobilization of PBSC confirmed with renal biopsy. These findings suggest that filgrastim may induce transient urinary excretion of protein and hematuria in PBSC donors as the symptoms of acute GN without adversely affecting renal function.