Goat Mouse C3c, conjugated with FITC Antibody

C3 is the most abundant complement protein in mouse serum. Its biological function strongly resembles that of C3 in man and 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 mouse serum. Freund’s complete adjuvant is used in the first step of the immunization procedure.

Fluorochrome-coupled purified hyperimmune IgG lyophilized from a solution in phosphate buffered saline (PBS, pH 7.2) No preservative added, as it may interfere with the antibody activity.

The lyophilized conjugate is shipped at ambient temperature and may be stored at +4°C; prolonged storage at or below -20°C. Prior to use, an aliquot is thawed slowly in the dark at ambient temperature, spun down again and used to prepare working dilutions by adding sterile phosphate buffered saline (PBS, pH 7.2) . Repeated thawing and freezing should be avoided. Working dilutions should be stored at +4°C, not refrozen, and preferably used the same day. If a slight precipitation occurs upon storage, this should be removed by centrifugation. It will not affect the performance of the immunoconjugate.