Immunological and Clinical-Chemical Investigations on Blood, Urine, and Kidney in Aging <i>Praomy</i><i>s</i><i>(Mastomys</i><i>)</i><i>natalensi</i><i>s</i> with Spontaneous Glomerulonephritis

Abstract

During its life-span, the multimammate mouse, Praomys (Mastomys) natalensis, may develop glomerulonephritis and a great variety of spontaneous tumors. Their occurrence is found to increase with age. Struck by the similarities at the light microscopic level between the glomerular lesions in Mastomys and those found in NZB mice and in man with systemic lupus erythematosus, an immunological and clinical-chemical investigation was initiated in order to study the pathogenesis of the glomerulonephritis. All data were compared with those described for aging rodents and for NZB mice strains with glomerulonephritis. The randomly bred Mastomys studied did not show hypergammaglobulinemia, hypoalbuminemia, Coombs’ hemolytic anemia, or cryo globulins. The percentage of ANF-positive sera and the extent of proteinuria seem to be normal for a rodent. However, in connection with the high incidence of tumors in Mastomys, it is suggested that the observed granular fluorescent deposits in the glomerulus of the kidneys consist of tumor antigen-antibody complexes.