Background: In systemic lupus erythematosus patients, a strong association between the occurrence of antibodies against complement C1q (anti-C1q) and lupus nephritis can be observed. However, the predictive value of anti-C1q titres for a renal flare remains to be determined. Increasing titres of anti-C1q before the occurrence of clinical apparent nephritis might not only serve as a clinical parameter but also indicate a direct pathogenic mechanism of anti-C1q.
Methods: The aim of this study was to analyse the occurrence of anti-C1q before the onset of experimental lupus nephritis in MRL/MpJ +/+ mice and to correlate anti-C1q titres with the type and severity of glomerulonephritis (GN) developing at advanced age.
Results: As judged by a number of morphological and immunological analyses, GN in MRL/MpJ +/+ mice resembled human lupus nephritis and occurred in variable degrees of severity. We also observed an abundant and early presence of anti-C1q. However, anti-C1q neither correlated with overall survival nor with any histological marker of severity of GN.
Conclusions: The absence of a correlation between the presence of anti-C1q and the occurrence of experimental lupus nephritis contradicts the hypothesis that anti-C1q are pathogenic. However, different pathogenic mechanisms of experimental lupus nephritis and human proliferative lupus nephritis cannot be excluded.