title: Degradation of insoluble immune complexes by glomerular mesangial cells and macrophages in culture.
abstract: Cultured mesangial cells are able to bind and degrade immune complexes in vitro, but in vivo mesangial cells do not appear to phagocytose electron-dense deposits. To investigate the influence of immune complex size on degradation by mesangial cells, carefully washed large insoluble radiolabelled immune complexes were prepared and applied to cultured mesangial cells or macrophages in vitro. The insoluble complexes bound to both cell types but only the macrophages appeared to be able to degrade them effectively. In a second experiment, the ability of cultured mesangial cells to degrade small, soluble immune complexes was confirmed. Their relative inefficiency in degrading large, insoluble immune complexes in vitro provides a potential explanation for their apparent inability to degrade rapidly electron-dense deposits in the mesangium in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Leicester, UK.
authors.forename: P N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Furness
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000936:Antigen-Antibody Complex / Q000378:metabolism*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005920:Glomerular Mesangium / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D008264:Macrophages / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012995:Solubility
chemical_list: D000936:Antigen-Antibody Complex