Early studies of animals bearing natural deficiencies in complement C3 and C4 and mice transiently deficient in C3 suggested that the complement system played a role in humoral immunity. Identification and characterization of the complement receptors CD21 and CD35 and their expression on B lymphocytes provided evidence for a direct role for complement in "linkage of innate and adaptive immunity...

Despite considerable advances in the understanding of the pathogenesis of meningococcal disease, this infection remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality globally. The role of the complement system in innate immune defenses against invasive meningococcal disease is well established. Individuals deficient in components of the alternative and terminal complement pathways are highly predisp...

The reaction of human, bovine, and pig properdin with excess zymosan exhibits an induction period followed by a rapidly accelerating formation of the properdin-zymosan (PZ) complex. Two methods for determining the quantity of PZ complex are given, one using human serum lacking properdin, the other using a fraction of pig serum containing complement components, C'1, C'3 and C'4.

T h e phenomenology of the complement system was quite extensively worked out by the early IY4Os when the four classical complement components. C'l, C'4. C'3 and C'2, had been described as had the 'anlage' of the observations that there were multiple pathways of activation. In the lY6Os, the complement components were purified as proteins and as antigens. T h e biochemistry of their interaction...

The use of powerful methodologies in molecular biology, biochemistry, and physiology in the last 2 decades had led to impressive progress in our understanding of the mechanisms of complement activation and its role as either a protective or a pathogenic factor in human disease. With respect to disease pathogenesis, the complexity of the complement cascade provides opportunities for several diff...

The complement system as a main column of innate immunity and the coagulation system as a main column in hemostasis undergo massive activation early after injury. Interactions between the two cascades have often been proposed but the precise molecular pathways of this interplay are still in the dark. To elucidate the mechanisms involved, the effects of various coagulation factors on complement ...

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the most important and lethal diseases in the world. CAD represents a board spectrum of disease from silent ischemia at one end to sudden cardiac death at the other end. The middle of this spectrum consists of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and unstable angina pectoris (UA). Recent data show that the inflammatory process plays a major r...