Anemia Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Anemia, including details on symptoms, diagnosis, diet, treatment, causes.

Translational mini-review series on complement factor H: renal diseases associated with complement factor H: novel insights from humans and animals.

Pickering MC, Cook HT

Molecular Genetics and Rheumatology Section, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, Hammersmith Campus, London, UK. matthew.pickering@imperial.ac.uk

Factor H is the major regulatory protein of the alternative pathway of complement activation. Abnormalities in factor H have been associated with renal disease, namely glomerulonephritis with C3 deposition including membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) and the atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome (aHUS). Furthermore, a common factor H polymorphism has been identified as a risk factor for the development of age-related macular degeneration. These associations suggest that alternative pathway dysregulation is a common feature in the pathogenesis of these conditions. However, with respect to factor H-associated renal disease, it is now clear that distinct molecular defects in the protein underlie the pathogenesis of glomerulonephritis and HUS. In this paper we review the associations between human factor H dysfunction and renal disease and explore how observations in both spontaneous and engineered animal models of factor H dysfunction have contributed to our understanding of the pathogenesis of factor H-related renal disease.

Published 14 January 2008 in Clin Exp Immunol, 151(2): 210-30.
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