Rabbit Guinea Pig C3c Antibody

C3 is the most abundant complement protein in guinea pig 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 in both pathways. Activation of C3 is achieved by specific limited proteolysis resulting in the increase of a number of degradation fragments. The anaphylatoxin C3a promotes smooth muscle contraction and increases vascular permeability; the large C3b fragment is involved in binding to the complement activator and can interact with specific receptors to allow efficient clearance of the activating cell or particle; degradation fragments of C3b (C3bi, C3c, C3dg and C3d) are important in receptor binding and clearance mechanisms, in virus neutralization and possible in the immune response. The antiserum is raised against C3c which is the major fragment resulting from the 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 antisera to C3c react 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. The protein is isolated and purified from pooled normal guinea pig serum by precipitation techniques, followed by chromatographical methods. Freund’s complete adjuvant is used in the first step of the immunization procedure.

Delipidated, heat inactivated, lyophilized, stable whole serum. No preservative added. Total protein and IgG concentrations in the antiserum are comparable to those of normal pooled rabbit serum. No foreign proteins added.