Complement Activation by Immune Complexes

[摘要] The binding of bacterial, viral or parasitic antigens with specific antibody and the formation of immune complexes (IC) in the circulation is a natural event in infectious diseases. In autoimmune immune complex diseases, such as RA and SLE, the development of circulating IC depends on the binding of autoantibodies to autoantigens. In either case complement is activated with the generation of activation products. As the extent of complement activation is likely to be proportional with the disease severity, the measurement of complement activation products in biological fluids could be used as a measure of disease activity. In order to be able to measure complement activation in biological fluids, three avidin-biotin sandwich ELISA procedures were developed for the quantification of the Cls:Clr:Cl-inhibitor (Cls:Cl-INH), C3bBbP (C3:P) and SC5b-9 (C5b-9) complexes. The three assays were optimized and had sensitivity limits of 0.75ng Cl-INH/ml for Cls:Cl-INH, 0.92ng C3/ml for C3:P and 0.9ng C5/ml for C5b-9. All three complement activation complexes were found to be stable during 4 hours incubation periods at 20

[发布机构] University:University of Glasgow

[关键词] Immunology