Goat Guinea Pig C3c, conjugated with FITC Antibody

Fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated IgG fraction of polyclonal goat antiserum to C3c fragment of guinea pig complement factor C3. C3 is the most abundant complement protein in guinea pig serum. Its biological function strongly resembles that of C3 in man an other laboratory animal species. It has a central role in the activation system being common to both pathways. Activation of C3 is achieved by very specific limited proteolysis resulting in the release of a number of degradation fragments. The anaphylotoxin C3a promotes smooth muscle contraction and increases vascular permeability: the large C3b fragment is involved in binding to the complement activator and can be interact with specific receptors to allow efficient clearance of the activating cell or particle; degradation fragments of C3b (C3bi, C3c, C3dg C3d) are important in receptor binding and clearance mechanisms, in virus neutralization and possibly in the immune response. The antiserum is raised against C3c, which is the major fragment resulting from C3 cleavage by C3 convertase and factor I. It is composed of an intact beta chain bound to two fragments of the alpha chain. Consequently the antiserum reacts with both native and activated C3. It may also react with the fragments C3b, C3bi and C3dg, since they all carry antigenic epitopes of the C3c domain. C3c is isolated and purified from pooled normal guinea pig serum. Freund's complete adjuvant is used in the first step of the immunization procedure.