Proposal of podocytic infolding glomerulopathy as a new disease entity

Excerpt

In recent case presentations at conferences in Japan and in personal consultations, we had begun to recognize a rare and peculiar glomerulopathy, in which microspheres and microtubular structures are shown in the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) in association with infolding of cytoplasmic processes of podocytes into the GBM. This rare and peculiar glomerulopathy has not yet been included in the World Health Organization’s classification of glomerular diseases, and only a few case reports have been published in the literature. We had no idea whether this lesion indicated a new disease entity or a transient morphological finding of a well-known disease. It was necessary to discern a clearer clinical and pathological profile and an effective treatment. However, it was difficult to accumulate cases at a single institution, because this glomerulopathy is extremely rare. Therefore, the Japanese Society of Nephrology has established a research working group and has collected cases from all over Japan in an attempt to understand the complete spectrum of this glomerulopathy. …