Ahoy folks,

I’m reading an article concerning Sickle-cell diseases, and stumbled upon a rather lenghty word, "Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis". I’ve been searching around for information on it, but it’s somewhat hard to decipher the Wikipedia definition. I though I’d see if anyone is familiar with it, or in the absense of that, see if anyone is interested in discussing/guiding/arguing about it.

Here’s what I know so far:

The name: (feel free to skip this part if you are short on time)

If I recall correctly, when white blood cells proliferate, they quickly grow in numbers, often as a response to some pathological stimuli. The definition on the web is similiar to "Growing by quickly dividing cells". Add that upp with the prefix "Membrano" and we could probably guess that Membranoproliferative means something along the lines of quick growth/swelling in the membrane of a cell. (Which happens to fit pretty well with the symptoms of the complication)
Glomerulus is a capillary tuft , and the name of the functional unit in the kidney is the nephron. As such, glomerulonepritis probably means a disease in the glomerulus in the nephron.

Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis – A complication in which the glomerulus of the kidney experiences swelling in the membrane

I hope I havent lost you by now, I just think breaking down the name helps alot when trying to remember what the disease/complication is about.

The actual disease –
This part will be pretty short.
According to wikipedia (and a few other sites) there are three different types of this disease, altough I’m afraid I dont really understand the differences in them.

This image is from the report, perhaps it will help explain things.

Here are the things I’m trying to find out at the moment:

• Why is this disease dangerous?

I’m well aware this might seem like an odd question, but many other diseases have a solid "reason" for being harmful. For example, its quite natural to assume that a brain tumor will cause some sort of complication, due to the awkard placement of it. Just as atherosclerosis has a solid reason for being harmful, since it’s actually blocking blood vessels.
But what does MPGN do? If if understand correctly, the glomerulus squeezes out primary urine, which then travels into the renal system. My only guess is that urine is now "trapped" between the glomerulus and the Bowman’s Capsule (e.g. trapped in the glomerular space) – Making it unable to be processed – And resulting in either simply the dysfunction of the renal system or harmful buildup/pressure in the trapped urine.

• Why is it a complication of Sickle-Cell disease

Sickle-cell diseases give progressive damage to multiple organs on the body, but how does abnormally shaped Red Blood Cells damage the renal corpuscle? I thought blood wasn’t even supposed to be processed in the nephron.

• Anything else

Heck, I’m not picky. If you know anything about MPGN – even things I’ve already written – then don’t hesitate to post. It helps me know I’ve understood things the right way.

Regards,
Jimmy