Immune complex nephritis in alcoholic cirrhosis: detection of Mallory body antigen in complexes by means of monoclonal antibodies to Mallory bodies

A Mallory body (alcoholic hyaline) antigen (JMB2) which is also present in intermediate filaments of epithelial origin was demonstrated immunohistochemically in renal glomeruli of three out of eleven patients with alcoholic liver damage. In two of these patients, both of whom had alcoholic cirrhosis with Mallory bodies, it was associated with mesangial deposits of IgA and C3. JMB2 was not found in glomeruli of normal controls, nor in a series of cases of glomerulonephritis in non-alcoholic patients. It is concluded that JMB2 is present in immune complexes in renal glomeruli of patients with renal disease consequent on alcoholic liver disease.