COMPLEMENT activation has a critical role in the rejection of vascularized organs transplanted between related and widely separated species. I .2 In June 1992 and in January 1993 we undertook two baboon-tohuman liver xenotransplantations. The serum levels ofC3. C4, total hemolytic complement activity (CH 11Xl)' and circulating immune complexes (IC) were monitored. The objective was to see if th...

An association between the complement system and immune complex glomerular disease in humans has long been recognized. In fact, much of our early understanding of the immunochemistry of complement activation developed with the study of acute and chronic glomerulonephritis (1). This manuscript will examine associations between glomerulonephritis and the three complement components encoded within...

Given two graphs G1 and G2, the Ramsey number R(G1, G2) is the smallest integer N such that, for any graph G of order N , either G1 is a subgraph of G, or G2 is a subgraph of the complement of G. Let Cn denote a cycle of order n, Wn a wheel of order n + 1 and Sn a star of order n. In this paper, it is shown that R(Wn, C4) = R(Sn+1, C4) for n ≥ 6. Based on this result and Parsons’ results on R(S...

Patients with COPD who fulfill the diagnostic criteria of chronic bronchitis have been shown to exhibit lower serum levels of complement components C3 and C4 than healthy subjects, and this may indicate sustained complement activation as a result of recurrent respiratory tract infections. Since activation of complement leads to influx of inflammatory cells into the lung parenchyma with subseque...

The nucleotide sequence coding for the fourth component of mouse complement (C4) has been determined from a cloned genomic DNA fragment and a cloned cDNA fragment. The amino acid sequence of the protein was deduced. The single chain precursor protein (pro-C4) consists of 1719 amino acid residues. The mature beta, alpha, and gamma subunits contain 654, 766, and 291 amino acids, respectively. One...

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic autoimmune disease with multifactorial ethiopathogenesis. The complement system is involved in both the early and late stages of disease development and organ damage. To better understand autoantibody mediated complement consumption we examined ex vivo immune complex formation on autoantigen arrays. We recruited patients with SLE (n = 211), with other s...

BACKGROUND Snake Venom Metalloproteinases (SVMPs) are amongst the key enzymes that contribute to the high toxicity of snake venom. We have recently shown that snake venoms from the Bothrops genus activate the Complement system (C) by promoting direct cleavage of C-components and generating anaphylatoxins, thereby contributing to the pathology and spread of the venom. The aim of the present stud...

The appearance and expansion of C4 plants in the Late Cenozoic was a dramatic example of terrestrial ecological change. The fire hypothesis, which suggests fire as a major cause of C4 grassland is gaining support, yet a more detailed relationship between fire and vegetation-type change remains unresolved. We report the content and stable carbon isotope record of black carbon (BC) in a sediment ...

We examined the relation of hostility, anger, and depression to 10-year changes in the third (C3), and fourth (C4) complement in 313, apparently healthy male participants enrolled in the Air Force Health Study (AFHS), a 20-year study designed to evaluate the health consequences of dioxin exposure. Hostility, depression, and anger were assessed using subscales from the Minnesota Multiphasic Pers...

The biochemical and physiological characteristics of C4 photosynthesis have been researched and clarified in detail. We now know that the differentiation of two cell types, mesophyll cells (MC) and bundle sheath cells (BSC), is required for efficient C4 photosynthesis. Thus, the leaves of C4 plants have more complicated structural and functional features than those of C3 plants (Hatch, 1999; Ka...