Autonephrolysine

Autonephrolysine (from Greek autos-self, nephros-kidney and lysis-dissolution), otherwise autonephrotoxin, a cellular poison acting on the kidney tissue of the same individual in whose body the autonephrolysine was formed. The stimulus for its production is destructive processes in the kidneys, wherein the destroyed tissue, upon being absorbed, stimulates the mechanisms capable of producing antibodies (bone marrow, spleen, etc.). Discovered by V. Lindeman and Nevedyev. The chemical nature of A., like antibodies in general, is unknown, and therefore supporters of the physicochemical theory consider it, like other antibodies, not a substance but a property of the blood and serum. Practically important is the fact that in the presence of a destructive process in one kidney, the A. formed creates conditions for the destruction of the other kidney, and therefore the question of timely removal of the diseased kidney to preserve the other is appropriate. Lit.: Lindeman V., Cytolysins as a cause of toxic nephritis, 1901; Herzen P. A., Experimental research on the effect on the kidney of substances arising in the blood during immunization of animals with kidney tissue or during damage to one kidney, diss., 1909; Sachs, Hemolysins and Cytotoxins of the blood serum (Kraus and bevaditi, Handbook of the Technique and Methods of Immunology, Vol. II, Jena, 1914).