The Complement System

Abstract

The human complement system (C) acts to lyse susceptible cells, to promote phagocytosis of target particles, and to solubilize immune-complexes, its activation generates peptides that mediate features of the inflammatory response. It is comprised of a series of plasma zymogens, activated by proteolytic cleavage in a cascade manner, and of plasma and cell membrane control proteins. Activation is achieved by two independent routes: the classical pathway, started by immunoglobulins, and the alternative pathway, started by cell membrane components. Both of them promote the generation of an enzyme-complex (C3 convertase) able to cleave the pivotal protein of the complement system, C3, thus initiating the common pathway with the formation of the lytic complex (Figure 1).

In this paper we will briefly review the physiologic phenomena related to the complement activation and its role in pathogenesis of illness particularly focusing on the studies carried out in our laboratory.