Background: Idiopathic anterior uveitis is an anterior segment inflammation in which a detailed medical history, general and ocular physical examination is not associated with any defined clinical syndrome. Alterations in immune system parameters have been reported in patients with idiopathic posterior uveitis; however no data on the role of immune system in idiopathic anterior uveitis has yet ...

OBJECTIVE A functional deficiency of complement has been implicated but not conclusively demonstrated in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). To test this, we studied several aspects of complement in 44 patients with SLE, 46 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 102 blood donors. METHODS Prevention of immune precipitation (PIP) was measured by an enzyme immunoassay, levels...

Twenty two out of 86 insulin dependent diabetics had serum C4 concentrations below the normal range. None of 41 non-insulin dependent diabetics tested had low concentrations. Low C4 values were seen in insulin dependent diabetes irrespective of the duration of the disease and did not appear to correlate with complement activation. There was a close correlation in C4 values between identical cot...

Serum levels of complement components Clq, C4, C3, and Properdin factor B, from the classical and alternative pathways of complement activation, have been estimated in patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. C3, factor B, and to some extent C4 concentrations all increased when the disease was active. In remission the levels of these components did not differ from hospital control ...

To investigate the possibility that low complement concentrations in the plasma and ascites of patients with severe liver disease could be secondary to complement consumption, complement activation was studied in 32 patients with severe liver disease, 11 of whom had spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP). In patients with SBP, plasma C3 and C4 were significantly lower than in uninfected patien...

Several autoimmune disorders as well as congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) are either associated or closely linked with genetic variants of the fourth component of complement (C4A and C4B) and the enzyme steroid 21-hydroxylase (21-OH). These proteins are encoded by genes that are located downstream from the genes for complement proteins, C2 and factor B (BF) between HLA-B and -DR in the major...

Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease (KFD), or histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis, is a benign and self-limited disease that mainly affects young women. Patients present with localized lymphadenopathy, fever, and leukopenia in up to half of the cases. KFD can occur in association with systemic lupus erythematosus. We present the case of a patient with KFD and systemic lupus erythematosus, as well as rel...

The northern pig-tailed macaque (NPM，Macaca leonina) has become a widely used animal model in biomedical research. In this study, we measured serum immunoglobulin IgG, IgM, IgA, complement C3, C4 and CRP levels in 3-11 year old captive northern pig-tailed macaques using HITACHI 7600-20 automated chemistry analyzer in order to determine the influences of age and gender on these items. The result...

Total serum haemolytic complement activity (CH(50)) and the serum concentrations of both the third and fourth components of the complement system (C3 and C4) have been measured in 29 control subjects, 92 patients with chronic hepatocellular disease, and eight patients with large duct biliary tract obstruction. The mean C4 concentration was reduced in all types of chronic liver disease studied. ...

Activation of component C3 is central to the pathways of complement and leads directly to neutralization of pathogens and stimulation of adaptive immune responses. The convertases that catalyze this reaction assemble from fragments of complement components via multistep reactions. In the lectin pathway, mannose-binding lectin (MBL) and ficolins bind to pathogens and activate MBL-associated seri...