Description
The monoclonal antibody 2952 recognizes a neo-epitope on human complement protein C5a/C5a des-Arg. C5 is involved in the activation of the lytic pathway within the complement system which is an important factor in innate immunity. The activation pathways lead via C3 to the cleavage of the fifth complement component C5. During complement activation, C5 is proteolytically cleaved and the anaphylatoxic peptide C5a is generated. C5a is a small polypeptide consisting of 74 amino acids (~11 kDa) and is derived from the N-terminus of the αchain. C5a itself is very short-lived and in serum is cleaved rapidly into the more stable, though biologically still active C5a-desArg (also called acylation stimulating protein, ASP). C5a acts as a potent anaphylatoxin causing smooth muscle contraction, vasodilatation, increased vascular permeability, basophil and mast cell degranulation and lysosomal enzyme release. In addition, C5a is a potent chemotactic factor for neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils and monocytes. C5a is involved in inflammatory reactions seen in gram-negative bacterial sepsis, trauma, ischemic heart disease, post-dialysis syndrome and a variety of autoimmune diseases. Elevation of C5a is associated with increased cardiovascular risk in patients with advanced atherosclerosis. Also, C5a is closely associated with the capillary leak syndrome in leukemic children after bone marrow transplantation. C5a is also a marker in urine for predicting the onset of acute graft rejection after kidney transplantation. Monoclonal antibody 2952 is a subclone of clone 2925. Please be aware that under given conditions it is known that C5 can expose epitopes normally only found in the cleaved activation products (ref.5).