The Beta1c Globulin in Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome

INVESTIGATIONS of serum complement in clinical and experimental renal disease have suggested an immune mechanism in certain forms of nephritis. In the two laboratory models for glomerulonephritis, nephrotoxic nephritis and foreign protein nephritis, serum complement titers have been shown to fall at the time the renal lesions develop.1 , 2 Observations of complement in human nephritis date back to 1915, when Gunn3 found low levels in acute glomerulonephritis. Subsequently, other investigators have confirmed these findings and reported diminished complement titers in subacute glomerulonephritis, in systemic lupus erythematosus and in some cases of the nephrotic syndrome. In contrast, complement titers were normal in . . .