Congenital
Defects in Complement
Characteristics of deficiency:
Šincreased
susceptibility to infection by pyogenic and intracellular bacteria
Šincreased
tendancy to develop immune complex diseases
Examples of some component deficiencies:
ŠC3 - lack
of opsonization results in decreased phagocytic function
Šfactor I
Šfactor H
may be fatal
due to pyogenic bacteria
ŠC5 -
results in lack of MAC - susceptible to intracellar infections by Neisseria species
ŠC1, C4, or
C2 - lack of clearing of immune complexes
