The experimental glomerulonephritis was caused by the intra venous injection of a subnephrotoxic dose of nephrotoxic serum in the mice which had been previously immunized with rabbit IgG and complete Freund's adjuvant. The elevation of urinary protein excretion, serum blood urea nitrogen level and cholesterol level and the decrease of serum albumin level were demonstrated in nephritic mice. Hypercellularity in the glomerulus and hyalinosis in tubular system were observed in histopathological studies. The clinical signs in this experimental model were similar to human glo merulonephritis. In a transfer experiment, sensitized lymphocytes against rabbit IgG were necessary for the onset of disease. Clear remission of glomerulonephritis was indicated by the administration of cyclophosphamide or 6-mercaptopurine. Glucocorticoids showed moderate suppression of the development of this nephritis. These evidences suggest that this experimental model is useful for the immunopharmacological research of glomerulonephritis.

Several kinds of experimental glomerulo nephritis can be produced in most laboratory animals. These experimental models are mainly employed for the research in pathology and immunology. In the field of phar macology, there are a few kinds of experi mental models. The commonly employed models are nephritis caused by immune complex or nephrotoxic serum (NTS) in rats. The clinical signs of these two models show a strict correlation to the human disease (1, 2). However, there are still some problems in these two models with respect to the re producibility of the experiments, the partici pation of immunological mechanisms and testing the efficacy of drugs. In order to solve these problems, we have examined modified NTS nephritis in mice as a model for im munopharmacological research of glomerulo