Immunotherapy And IgA Nephropathy

How can we treat IgA Nephropathy effectively?

Modern medical science has no an agreed treatment scheme for IgA Nephropathy and the comment on the effect is also different. Therefore, the discussion of the effective intervention measures of immunotherapy for preventing the aggravation of IgA Nephropathy and reducing the occurrence of Uremia has vital significance.

IgA Nephropathy can be completely cured by immunotherapy through restraining immune reaction, eliminating immune complex and regulating immune system. We can achieve this purpose by the following six steps:

Ⅰ. After patients arrive at our hospital, our experts will firstly make a comprehensive and systemic diagnosis of your illness condition, and then make a personalized treatment schedule for you.

Ⅱ. Through cooperating with foreign hospitals around the world, we introduce the newest immunosuppressive drugs with lowest side effects. Moreover, we create the immune blocking methods which can eliminate the abnormal inflammation and cease the intrinsic cell damages rapidly.

Ⅲ. Immune tolerance stage. At present, there is no effective medication which can clear up the immune complex, so we should make the body adaptive to the deposits of kidneys.

Ⅳ. Immune adjustment treatment. Western medicines can not eliminate the immune complex effectively, but we find useful methods in Chinese medicine. Through applying Chinese medicine, we can not only remove the immune complex but also improve the immunity of human body.

Ⅴ. Immune protection stage. During the treatment process, we can find ways to protect the damaged kidney tissues and inherent cell from being impaired again.

Ⅵ. Immune clearance treatment. According the patients’ characteristic, immunoadsorption, plasmapheresis and blood purification are used to help us eliminate the immune complex completely.

Herbal Treatment for IgA Nephritis

What's the meaning of herbal treatment?

Herbal treatment for IgA Nephritis (Berger's disease) means that treating IgA Nephritis with herbs. Herbal treatments refer to a type o alternative medicine that originates for plants and plant extracts. Used to heal illness and disease and to address psychological concerns, herbal treatments have been around for centuries, and were the precursor to modern medicine. Herbal remedies are obtained from a wide variety of natural resources including plant leaves, bark, berries, flowers, and roots. Herbal treatment has a history of more than two thousand years of history and remains a popular alternative throughout China. Moreover, it is growing in popularity all over the world.

How to treat IgA Nephritis (Berger's disease) with herbal remedy?

IgA Nephritis is featured by deposits of immune complex in the mesangial area of kidneys. The renal tissues and inherent cells are damaged. Over time, the kidney function can be impaired gradually by increasing immune complex deposition. At present, there is no effective western medical method which can remove them, but nephrologists in Shijiazhuang Kidney Disease Hospital find a solution in herbal medicine. Experiments show that some herbs are effective in treating IgA Nephritis. What's more, the therapy has been proved to be effective in dealing with kidney disease in clinical.

As we all know, the treatment effects of Chinese medicine are slower than western medications, so our nephrologists create an innovative therapy based on herbal medicines, called Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy. It comes into being through combining traditional herbal treatment with modern medical technology. Under the treatment, further damage can be stopped, the blood circulation and nutrition supply are improved, and the impaired renal tissues and inherent cells can be repaired, so the renal function is improved in a large degree. Besides, Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy is external applied, so while receiving this treatment, IgA Nephritis patients do not feel any pain or uncomfortable.

Immunotherapy: The Latest Treatment of IgA Nephropathy

In healthy condition, the immune system is a protecting system for our body and the immune cells can eliminate the foreign pathological substance. Hence, our body can keep in a normal and healthy state. However, in some cases, the immune system is initiated improperly. As a result, an antibody called immunoglobulin A (IgA) lodges in glomeruli and affecting their filtering ability gradually. Once the glomeruli are impaired, the patients will present a series of clinical symptoms like proteinuria, hematuria, and high blood pressure and so on. In order to treat IgA Nephropathy radically, it is the key to clearing up the deposited immunoglobulin A and regulating the immune system. The therapeutic mechanism of immunotherapy in the treatment of IgA Nephropathy is as follows:

1. In immunotherapy, blocking immune activation can prevent the immunoglobulin A from lodging in glomeruli further.

2. As the deposited immunoglobulin A is the underlying cause of glomerular inflammation, blood purification technique is applied to clear up the abnormal immunoglobulin A in blood.

3. In the immune regulation of immunotherapy, Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy can degrade the deposited the immune complexes and discharge them out of body when urinating. Meanwhile, Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy also can regulate the immune system and enhances the self-clearance ability of the body.

4. As the immune complexes immunoglobulin A has impaired renal cells, to improve the renal function, it is very important to restore the damaged cells. On one hand, Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy can dilate blood vessels and increase the oxgen, blood and micronutrients supply to kidneys thus enhancing the self-repairing of the diseased cells. On the other hand, the infusion of stem cells can replace the totally necrotic cells with new ones. Therefore, the renal function will improve enormously and even recover normal.

IgA Nephropathy: Symptoms and Prognosis

Symptoms of IgA Nephropathy

* Gross hematuria: It usually occurs a short time (24~72 hours) later after upper respiratory infection. Sometimes, the persons are also accompanied by mild systemic symptoms like muscle pain, painful urination, low fever ad back pain. The gross hematuria usually occurs frequently and it may convert to microscopic hematuria after a period.

* Microscopic hematuria with or without asymptomatic proteinuria: It is very common among children and adults.

* Proteinuria: It is usually mild and the urine protein is less than 1 gram in 24 hours. However, in a minority of cases, the persons may suffer from massive proteinuria and even Nephrotic Syndrome.

* Rapidly progressive nephritis syndrome: It is rare. The persons usually have persistent gross hematuria, massive of proteinuria. The renal function aggravates in a very short time along with edema and mild or moderate high blood pressure.

* Others: For the patients with typical clinical symptoms, they often experience intense pain in back and abdomen along with kidney stone. In this case, the disease is usually are misdiagnosed as kidney stone, pyelonephritis or acute gastroenteritis.

Prognosis of IgA Nephropathy

The following factors can influence the prognosis of IgA Nephropathy.

* The prognosis of IgA Nephropathy is poorer in male than female. What’s more, the earlier the disease starts, the worse its prognosis will be.

* For the persons with frequent gross hematuria, the prognosis is bad.

* If the persons with IgA Nephropathy develop massive proteinuria or Nephrotic Syndrome, the prognosis is not good.

* If the persons with IgA Nephropathy have a poor control of blood pressure, the prognosis is bad.

* If the pathological change in IgA Nephropathy such as crescent formation, interstitial fibrosis etc, the prognosis is bad.

Life Expectancy of Berger's Disease

If the patients can receive proper treatment as early as possible, the disease will not affect their patients’ life expectancy at all.


In early stage of Berger’s Disease, if the patients’ do not receive effective treatment, it is very likely to lead to a series of complications like high blood pressure, Nephrotic Syndrome and even massive proteinuria. In turn, these complications will certainly accelerate the disease progression. The conventional therapies like medications for high blood pressure, hormone etc can relieve the complications and symptoms of IgA Nephropathy temporarily. However, they only focus their symptoms, but can not treat the diseases from its underlying causes. Therefore, the conventional therapies can not extend the life expectancy of the patients with Berger’s Disease.


Immune dysfunction plays the major role in Berger’s Disease. In some cases, the immune system is activated improperly. When the foreign pathological substances invade into body, the relative antibodies are produced by immune system. However, for immune dysfunction, they can not tell the antigens and the healthy cells and tissues. As a result, a larger amount of antibodies complexes deposit in mesangial cells thus resulting in immune injury to mesangial cells. Once the mesangial cells are damaged, they can not function normally. Therefore, a lot of protein and red blood cells will leak into urine.

As for the treatment of Berger’s Disease, immunotherapy has showed its enormous therapeutic effect. It can suppress the inflammation of kidney, repair the damaged mesangial cells as well as rebuild immune system.

In immunotherapy, Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy can degrade the immune complexes and extracellular matrixes and make them dissolve in blood. Afterwards, these harmful substances will be excreted in urine. Therefore, it can stop the further damage to kidneys.


As the mesangial cells have been impaired by immune inflammation, to improve renal function, Stem Cell Transplant is intervened to restore them. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells with infinite differentiation and regeneration ability. After the stem cells are cultured, they will be infused into patients’ body through vein. The stem cells can differentiate into new cells to replace the necrotic cells to function.

After the kidneys are restored very well, their function will improve enormously and even recover normal. Therefore, the complications and symptoms relative to Berger’s Disease will disappear afterwards.

Immunotherapy Treatment of Berger's Disease

In Berger’s Disease, the immune system can not work well. When the foreign infection virus, bacteria etc invade into body, their relevant antibodies can not defeat them effectively. As a result, the antigens encounter and bind to antibodies to form immune complexes in blood. The complexes will flow into kidneys in blood circulation and then deposit in mesangial area. These immune complexes attract inflammatory factors ceaselessly, which will cause inflammation in kidneys and impair the mesangial cells thus resulting in the proliferation and hyperplasia of the cells. Moreover, the inflammation can cause the mesangial cells to produce type 1 and type 3 collagen resulting in accumulation of extracellular matrix. As a result, the renal fibrosis is activated and glomeruli ossify gradually.

After the above analysis of the pathogenesis of Berger’s Disease, the treatment of the disease should include clearing up immune complexes, suppressing inflammation, correcting immune dysfunction and restoring mesangial cells.

Immunotherapy is not a signal therapy, but a comprehensive treatment system including the western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine.

In immunotherapy, the application of hormone and medicines for autoimmune diseases with low side effects can suppress the inflammation effectively so as to stop further damage to renal tissues.

However, it is not possible for the immune complexes to deposit in kidneys for too long. The application of the modern blood purification not only can clear up the immune complexes in blood, but also can remove other metabolic wastes like creatinine, nitrogen etc.

But the techniques can not eliminate the complexes in kidneys. For this part of immune complexes, Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy can degrade the immune complexes and make the dissolve in blood. Finally, they will be passed out into urine through circulation.

As for the impaired mesangial cells, Stem Cell Transplant is applied to restore them. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells without developing specialized functions. In right body condition, they can differentiate into new cells to replace the damaged mesangial cells to function.

After the above systemic treatment, the renal function of the patients with Berger’s Disease will have an enormous improvement and avoid developing into Renal Failure totally.

IgA Nephropathy Relapse and Transplanted Kidney

Some researches show that the reoccurence rate of IgA Nephropathy to transplanted kidney varies from 50% to 80% cases. The disease can return even several years or even days. Why is the reoccurence rate so high? Is there alternative treatment to Kidney Transplant?

Causes of IgA Nephropathy reoccurence after Kidney Transplant

IgA Nephropathy is an autoimmune disorder, in which the patients' immune system attacks the healthy tissues and cells.

In normal case, when the foreign pathological stuffs(antigens) invade into body, the relative antibodies are activated by immune system to defeat them. The immune complexes of antigens and antibodies will be discharged out of body through systemic circulation.

However, when immune system is activated improperly, the immune complexes will build up in blood. As there are binding epitopes for the immune complexes, they will flow into kidneys and deposit there. The body mounts an inflammatory response to remove these foreign harmful substances, resulting in damage to glomeruli( filters) in kidneys. Afterwards, a series of symptoms occur such as proteinuria, hematuria etc.

In Kidney Transplant, although the diseased kidney is replaced by a healthy kidney, the patients' immune system is not regulated yet. Therefore, the patients' immune system may attack the transplanted kidney again, triggering the reoccurence of IgA Nephropathy.

Alternative treatment to Kidney Transplant for IgA Nephropathy

Immunotherapy is a new and alternative therapy for IgA Nephropathy other than kidney transplant.

Immunotherapy refers to a therapy that treats disease by suppressing, enhancing or inducing an immune response. It plays the following roles in treating IgA Nephropathy.

① Immunotherapy can remove the immune complexes in blood and kidneys. Hence, it can stop the immune injury to kidney tissues and cells immediately.

② It can regulate patients' immune system and stop excessive production of pathological antibodies. Therefore, it can prevent the formation of immune complexes.

③ It aims at eliminating the symptoms of IgA Nephropathy by restoring the impaired kidney tissues and cells..