Passive Heymann nephritis with acute and severe proteinuria was produced in rats by a single injection of heterologous antibody against a purified glycoprotein which consisted of homologous subunits with a molecular weight of 108,000 (gp108). Gp108 was identified as one of the major antigens in rat renal tubular fraction (FX1A) on immunoblotting assay by using total proteins of FX1A and rabbit antiserum against FX1A. A band of gp330, which was identified as a pathogenic antigen of Heymann nephritis by Kerjaschki D and Farquhar MG (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 79:5557, 1982) was detected as another band by Coomassie blue staining and immunoblotting. Autoantibodies in the sera of FX1A-injected (active Heymann nephritis) rats reacted to the band of gp330 but not to gp108. These results indicate that gp108 is a different glycoprotein from both gp330 and its degradation products. GP108 was subsequently purified to near homogeneity by extraction with Triton X-100, and then DEAE-cellulose and Bio-Gel A-1.5m column chromatographies. On gel permeation chromatography, the purified antigen showed a molecular weight of 310,000, suggesting that it consists of dimer or trimer of gp108. Rabbits immunized with gp108 produced an antibody which showed monospecific binding to gp108. The antibody stained with brush border of proximal renal tubules in addition to the capillary loops in rat glomeruli by indirect immunofluorescence. Injection of rabbit antiserum against gp108 in rats induced severe proteinuria within 2 days. On the 2nd day after the injection, the glomeruli of the animals showed granular immune deposits along the capillary loops in addition to dominant staining of the brush border of the proximal tubules by immunofluorescence. These results indicate that gp108 is a pathogenic antigen in passive Heymann nephritis and that an antibody against gp108 has a nephritogenic and proteinuria-inducing activity.