Production of C3 nephritic factor by cultured lymphocytes derived from a patient with partial lipodystrophy.
C3 nephritic factor (C3 NeF) has been found mainly in the sera of patients with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) and partial lipodystrophy (PLD). We examined whether peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from a patient with PLD could produce C3 NeF. We investigated the in vitro immunoglobulin synthesis of PBMC with mitogen. We further studied the C3bBb stabilizing activity and undertook agglutination assays of the IgG obtained from the culture supernatants. The patient IgG was able to agglutinate only EAC4b3bBb cells and none of the other intermediate cells. We this demonstrated that C3 NeF could be produced in vitro by PBMC derived from a patient with PLD.