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. 2019 Apr 3;10:672. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.00672

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Copyright © 2019 Thurman and Yapa.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Complement activation may directly injure the podocytes in membranous nephropathy. In membranous nephropathy, immune complexes are located between the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) and the podocyte foot processes. Activation at this location generates C5b-9, which may directly damage podocytes. Because of the location of the immune complexes, however, most of the C3a and C5a that is generated probably passes into the urine and does not enter the bloodstream. This may explain why leukocytes do not typically infiltrate the glomeruli in this disease.