Polymorphism of genes involved in anti-tubular basement membrane disease in rats.

Inbred strains of rats differ widely in their susceptibility to interstitial nephritis induced by rabbit renal tubular basement membrane (TBM) preparations. We now report that susceptibility is determined in part by an RT1-linked gene for effector cell responsiveness producing interstitial lesions. Furthermore, we also obtained evidence that the gene determining expression of the target TBM antigen is linked to the gene for albinism on the first linkage group. When non-susceptible rats lacking the TBM antigen but having the gene for cellular responsiveness were mated with non-susceptible rats which had the TBM antigen but lacked the gene for cellular responsiveness, the F1 hybrids were susceptible to the induction of interstitial nephritis. Although strains varied widely in the amount of anti-TBM antibody (alpha TBM-Ab) they produced, this variation does not appear to be controlled by RT1-linked genes, nor does the isotype or amount of antibody appear to be related to the susceptibility to infiltrating cellular lesions.