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A Comparative Study of Complement

I. The Specific Inactivation of the Components

From the William G. Kerckhoff Laboratories of the Biological Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

Abstract

The above comparative study of complement in the vertebrates showed that the frog had a hemolytic complement very similar to that of the guinea pig in that four components could be demonstrated using almost the same technics of inactivation as for the guinea pig. It also showed that the carp has at least three components similar in the nature of their specific inactivations to those of the guinea pig and frog. These were represented by a heat-labile fraction, one inactivated by zymin and one by ammonia hydroxide. Of these, the ammonia-inactivated one closely resembled C'4 of the guinea pig in its properties, the zymin-inactivated one was suggestive of guinea pig C'3, but the heat-labile fraction was unlike that of the guinea pig in that it could not be "split" by the carbon-dioxide technic. Reasons are given, however, for believing that this may be accomplished by slight variations in the technic of splitting. In spite of this possible peculiarity of the heat-labile fraction of carp complement, it appears to be quite similar to that of the guinea pig and frog, a similarity that is borne out by the inter-specific reactivations to be reported in part II.

That the differences in the specifications found among the complements of various species are due to variations in hereditary factors seems probable from the demonstration of the presence of a simple recessive gene in guinea pigs that causes a complement deficiency (Moore, 1919). This fact suggests that the serum proteins responsible for the complementary activity of this and other species are probably as subject to the forces of mutation and selection as are the variety of antigenic proteins studied by systematic serologists (see Boyden, 1942, for a general review of this field and Cumley, Irwin, and Cole, 1942, and Cumley and Irwin, 1943, for data on the inheritance of specific antigenic differences in serum proteins).

In closing this paper, I would like to thank Dr. Sterling Emerson, under whom this research was conducted, for his continued help and advice. I would also like to thank Dr. Albert Tyler for his advice, and Mr. Charles Arthur, Health Officer, Pasadena City Health Department for his generosity in supplying the large amounts of sheep erythrocytes used.