In a case study by Tomo (2025), a patient with a history of alcoholic liver cirrhosis developed IgA nephropathy (IgAN), characterized by blood and protein in the urine. A kidney biopsy showed specific deposits in the kidney and mild cell proliferation. Tests indicated strong signals for immune proteins IgA and IgM in the kidney's filtering capillaries, with no distinction between two types of light chains, kappa and lambda. Electron microscopy confirmed the presence of these deposits in key areas of the kidney. The study also found that antibodies to a specific form of IgA that lacks galactose (a sugar molecule) were combined with regular IgA, and there was positive staining for proteins that inhibit cell death in macrophages along the kidney capillaries. These findings suggest that the mechanisms behind primary IgAN and IgAN related to alcoholism might be similar.
