[Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis in ANCA-associated vasculitis: a course, treatment efficacy, prognosis].

Aim: To study efficacy of ANCA-RPGN treatment with corticosteroids and cyclophosphamide or mycophenolic acid drugs.

Material And Methods: We treated 28 patients (17 males and 11 females aged 19-71 years) with morphologically verified ANCA-associated crescentic RPGN (crescentic median 79 (63:88)%. The patients received corticosteroids and cytostatics.

Peripheral blood serum from healthy donors contains antibodies against the fragment of transcribed region of ribosomal repeat.

Enzyme immunoassay showed that blood serum from healthy donors contains specific high-affinity antibodies (apparent association constant > or = 5 x 10(9) M(-1)) against a fragment of transcribed region of ribosomal DNA repeat of human serum, which are present in a free form or are bound to extracellular DNA. Preheating of the serum at 55 degrees C and high ionic strength (1.5 M NaCl) had no effect on the interaction of antibodies with this fragment.