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B. Paul Morgan and a team of expert laboratorians present a comprehensive set of readily reproducible methods to study this critical system. These cutting-edge techniques are suitable both for the basic scientist interested in understanding complement's mechanisms of activation and for the clinical scientist wishing to quantify its activation, and range from the purification of its components to generating complement-deficient mice by gene deletion. Additional techniques presented include procedures for the analysis of its function, for the study of its regulators, for detection of its activation in vivo, and for the identification of its autoantibodies. Comprehensive and cutting-edge, Complement Methods and Protocols offers today's basic and clinical investigators powerful tools for the analysis of the role of complement in human pathophysiology and disease, as well as its therapeutic regulation.
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Methods in Molecular Biology TM VOLUME 150 Complement Methods and Protocols Edited by B. Paul Morgan Classical Pathway Terminal Pathway Alternative Pathway HUMANA PRESS The Complement System 1 1 The Complement System: An Overview B. Paul Morgan 1. Introduction The complement (C) system consists of a group of 12 soluble plasma proteins that interact with one another in two distinct enzymatic activation cascades (the classical and alternative pathways) and in the nonenzymatic assembly of a cytolytic complex (the membrane attack pathway) (Fig. 1; Table 1). A third activation pathway, termed the lectin pathway, has recently been described (1,2). Control of these enzymatic cascades, essential to prevent rapid consumption of C in vivo, is provided by 10 or more plasma and membrane-bound inhibitory proteins acting at multiple stages of the system. C plays a central role in innate immu