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Lawrence F. Eichenfield, MD; Richard B. Johnston, Jr, MD

Am J Dis Child. 1989;143(5):595-602.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

The complement system is a principle mediator of inflammation and serves as an important arm of the body's immune response. It was first discovered as a heat-sensitive serum factor necessary for bacterial lysis in the presence of specific antibody. How it "complements" the antigen-antibody interaction and mediates inflammation has been the subject of intensive research.

The complement system consists of 19 well-defined plasma proteins that interact with each other and with cell membranes. The function of many of these proteins has been defined through the study of natural deficiency states.—the primary, inherited complement deficiencies. While much has been written about these,^1-4 there has been relatively little work addressing secondary disorders of complement. The purpose of this article is to survey diseases in which complement deficiency is secondary to some more primary disorder (Table 1). In most cases the complement deficiency contributes to the clinical presentation or pathogenesis of the . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pa.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication December 19, 1988.

Reprint request to The Children's Hospital, Department of Pediatrics, 34th Street and Civic Center Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (Dr Johnston).

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