Skip to main content
Log in

Monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance (MGRS): the characteristics and significance of a new meta-entity

  • Nephrology – Review
  • Published:
International Urology and Nephrology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance (MGRS) is a new nosological group of entities (meta-entity) defined in 2012, whose pathogenesis depends on monoclonal immunoglobulins (Ig) secreted by low-grade lymphoproliferative disorders, which belong to M-protein-related diseases. Renal damage is the result of monoclonal Ig deposit or its activity as autoantibodies, which can compromise any nephronal area. MGRS does not include kidney diseases produced by high-grade lymphoproliferative disorders as well as those whose pathogenesis are independent of monoclonal Ig (such as drug toxicity or metabolic disorders). The importance of this hemato-nephrological meta-entity is based on two aspects: First, it is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, including recurrence in post-renal transplant or its appearance as “de novo” after it; and second, it usually improves after treating the plasmocyte or lymphocyte clone responsible, leading to the elimination of M-protein. Between low-grade lymphoproliferative disorders, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) requires special consideration for two reasons: First, it is the disorder most related to MGRS; second, when MGUS progresses to MGRS, effective treatment against toxic underline clone should be performed taking into account the nephrological perspective.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Leung N, Bridoux F, Hutchison CA et al (2012) Monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance: when MGUS is no longer undetermined or insignificant. Blood 120:4292–4295

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Bridoux F, Leung N, Hutchison CA et al (2015) Diagnosis of monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance. Kidney Int 87:698–711

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Al-Hussain T, Hussein MH, Al Mana H et al (2015) Renal involvement in monoclonal gammopathy. Adv Anat Pathol 22:121–134

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Fermand JP, Bridoux F, Kyle RA et al (2013) How I treat monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance (MGRS). Blood 122:3583–3590

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. van de Donk NW, Palumbo A, Johnsen HE et al (2014) The clinical relevance and management of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and related disorders: recommendations from the European Myeloma Network. Haematologica 99:984–996

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Heher EC, Goes NB, Spitzer TR et al (2010) Kidney disease associated with plasma cell dyscrasias. Blood 116:1397–1404

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Tewari R, Joshi K, Kumar A et al (2016) Early recurrence of proliferative glomerulonephritis with monoclonal immunoglobulin deposits in a renal allograft. Saudi J Kidney Dis Transpl 27:381–385

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Debiec H, Hanoy M, Francois A et al (2012) Recurrent membranous nephropathy in an allograft caused by IgG3κ targeting the PLA2 receptor. J Am Soc Nephrol 23:1949–1954

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Nambirajan A, Bhowmik D, Singh G et al (2015) Monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance with light-chain deposition disease diagnosed postrenal transplant: a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Transpl Int 28:375–379

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Pickering MC, D’Agati VD, Nester CM (2013) C3 glomerulopathy: consensus report. Kidney Int 84:1079–1089

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Zand L, Kattah A, Fervenza FC et al (2013) C3 glomerulonephritis associated with monoclonal gammopathy: a case series. Am J Kidney Dis 62:506–514

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Sepandj F, Trillo A (1996) Dense deposit disease in association with monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance. Nephrol Dial Transplant 11:2309–2312

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Sethi S, Sukov WR, Zhang Y et al (2010) Dense deposit disease associated with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance. Am J Kidney Dis 56:977–982

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Bridoux F, Desport E, Frémeaux-Bacchi V et al (2011) Glomerulonephritis with isolated C3 deposits and monoclonal gammopathy: a fortuitous association? Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 6:2165–2174

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Cheungpasitporn W, Leung N, Sethi S et al (2015) Refractory atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome with monoclonal gammopathy responsive to bortezomib-based therapy. Clin Nephrol 83:363–369

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Ali A, Schlanger L, Nasr SH et al (2016) Proliferative C4 dense deposit disease, acute thrombotic microangiopathy, a monoclonal gammopathy, and acute kidney failure. Am J Kidney Dis 67:479–482

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Kapoulas S, Raptis V, Papaioannou M (2015) New aspects on the pathogenesis of renal disorders related to monoclonal gammopathies. Nephrol Ther 11:135–143

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Bhutani G, Nasr SH, Said SM et al (2015) Hematologic characteristics of proliferative glomerulonephritides with nonorganized monoclonal immunoglobulin deposits. Mayo Clin Proc 90:587–596

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Sethi S, Theis JD, Leung N et al (2010) Mass spectrometry-based proteomic diagnosis of renal immunoglobulin heavy chain amyloidosis. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 5:2180–2187

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  20. Attaelmannan M, Levinson SS (2000) Understanding and identifying monoclonal gammopathies. Clin Chem 46:1230–1238

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Bancu I, Cañas L, Juega FJ et al (2015) Outcomes of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance in patients who underwent kidney transplantation. Transpl Proc 47:2344–2345

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Harada M, Kamijo Y, Ehara T et al (2014) A case of podocytic infolding glomerulopathy with multiple myeloma. BMC Nephrol 15:32

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Messiaen T, Deret S, Mougenot B et al (2000) Adult Fanconi syndrome secondary to light chain gammopathy. Clinicopathologic heterogeneity and unusual features in 11 patients. Medicine 79:135–154

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Yadav P, Leung N, Sanders PW et al (2015) The use of immunoglobulin light chain assays in the diagnosis of paraprotein-related kidney disease. Kidney Int 87:692–697

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Hogan JJ, Weiss BM (2016) Bridging the divide: an onco-nephrologic approach to the monoclonal gammopathies of renal significance. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 11:1681–1691

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Musso CG, Oreopoulos DG (2011) Aging and physiological changes of the kidneys including changes in glomerular filtration rate. Nephron Physiol 119(Suppl 1):p1–p5

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Vadlamudi S, Annapareddy SN (2016) Multiple myeloma: diagnosis and management issues in patients with pre-existing chronic kidney disease. Saudi J Kidney Dis Transpl 27:9–14

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Hutchison CA, Plant T, Drayson M et al (2008) Serum free light chain measurement aids the diagnosis of myeloma in patients with severe renal failure. BMC Nephrol 9:11

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  29. Kyle RA, Therneau TM, Rajkumar SV et al (2006) Prevalence of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance. N Engl J Med 354:1362–1369

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Eisele L, Durig J, Huttmann A, Duhrsen U, Assert R, Bokhof B et al (2012) Prevalence and progression of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and light-chain MGUS in Germany. Ann Hematol 91:243–248

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Owen RG, Treon SP, Al-Katib A, Fonseca R, Greipp PR, McMaster ML et al (2003) Clinicopathological definition of Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia: consensus panel recommendations from the second international workshop on Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia. Semin Oncol 30:110–115

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Kyle RA, Rajkumar SV (2009) Criteria for diagnosis, staging, risk stratification and response assessment of multiple myeloma. Leukemia 23:3–9

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Merlini G, Palladini G (2012) Differential diagnosis of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance. Hematol Am Soc Hematol Educ Progr 2012:595–603

    Google Scholar 

  34. Merlini G (2014) Determining the significance of MGUS. Blood 123:305–307

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Sethi S, Fervenza FC (2011) Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis: pathogenetic heterogeneity and proposal for a new classification. Semin Nephrol 31:341–348

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Ivanyi B, Degrell P (2014) Fibrillary glomerulonephritis and immunotactoid glomerulopathy. Nephrol Dial Transpl 19:2166–2170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Takada S, Shimizu T, Hadano Y et al (2012) Cryoglobulinemia (review). Mol Med Rep 6:3–8

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Heguilén R (2012) Renal tubular acidosis: diagnostic strategies and therapeutic management. Pronefro online. Sociedad Argentina de Nefrología

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mariana Ciocchini.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ciocchini, M., Arbelbide, J. & Musso, C.G. Monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance (MGRS): the characteristics and significance of a new meta-entity. Int Urol Nephrol 49, 2171–2175 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11255-017-1594-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11255-017-1594-y

Keywords

Navigation