Clinicopathological characteristics of M-type phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R)-related membranous nephropathy in Japanese.

Background Recent studies have suggested that assessments of serum antibodies against M-type phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R) and the glomerular expression of PLA2R antigen in biopsy specimens are useful for the diagnosis of primary membranous nephropathy (MN). In this study, we assessed both of them and investigated the clinicopathological characteristics of PLA2R-related Japanese MN.