Lupus Nephritis: A Kind of Autoimmune Disease

Lupus Nephritis refers to the inflammation of kidneys caused by systemic lupus erythematosus( SLE). Nearly all patients with SLE have renal damage in varying degrees and approximately half develop Renal Failure.

In healthy condition, our immune systems play important role in preventing the foreign pathological virus and bacteria from invading into our body. However, some people have autoimmune deficiency. When the lupus viruses as antigens invade into their body, the activated immune system fails to defeat them. As a result, the antibodies will form immune complexes deposit in the glomerular epithelial cells. Alternatively, the antigens also bind with the antibodies in kidneys forming immune complexes in situ. For the exclusiveness ability, the body will does their best to remove the immune complexes out of body leading to the immune inflammatory response. When the inflammatory response occurs excessively, it will lead damage to the glomerular epithelial cells. In clinic, the patients will present a series of Lupus Nephritis symptoms.

The conventional therapies for Lupus Nephritis mainly focus on to eliminating proteinuria, high blood pressure or restraining the abnormal inflammatory response. In most cases, the patients with Lupus Nephritis can have obvious improvement after a period of hormone and immunosuppressive treatment. However, when the hormone dosage is reduced or the patients suffer from infection like a mild cold, it will trigger the disease again. Why does Lupus Nephritis relapse frequently? That is because the immune complexes in the glomerular epithelial cells are not cleared up. Therefore, they will lead to continuous immune inflammatory response and cause renal damage persistently.

Therefore, in term of the underlying causes of Lupus Nephritis above, the key in the treatment of Lupus Nephritis is to remove the immune complexes and then regulate their immune system. If these two goals can be achieved, the further renal damage will be inhibited and also prevent the relapse of the disease.