| A glomerular disease with characteristics of severe renal failure and nephrotic syndrome at birth, which rapidly improves in the first weeks of life. The disorder has been described in 15 infants from 5 families originating from Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Morocco. The disease is a congenital disorder where infants present at birth with nephrotic syndrome, acute renal failure (oligoanuria and proteinuria), or both. Respiratory distress and hypertension are also observed during the first days of life. Some degree of dysmorphism may be observed in some cases. Mothers do not show any renal manifestations. Caused by the transplacental transfer of nephritogenic anti-NEP antibodies (IgG1, IgG4 subtypes) from mothers with truncating mutations of the MME gene (3q25.2; coding for NEP), resulting in a functional knockout of MME. |