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. 1979 Mar 1;177(3):959–965. doi: 10.1042/bj1770959

The purification and characterization of bovine C4, the fourth component of complement.

N A Booth, R D Campbell, J E Fothergill
PMCID: PMC1186463  PMID: 312644

Abstract

The fourth component of complement, C4, was isolated from bovine plasma in high yield, by using simple purification techniques. The protein, like human component C4, is a beta-globulin with a mol.wt. of about 200 000 and consists of three polypeptide chains, alpha, beta and gamma, with apparent mol. wts. of 98 000, 82 000 and 32 000 respectively. The chains of C4 have been separated by methods previously used for human C4. Their amino acid compositions are very similar to those of the human component, but differences in carbohydrate distribution have been observed. The haemolytic activity of bovine C4 is totally destroyed by incubation with bovine C1s, the activated subcomponent of the first component of complement. Component C4, treated in this way, was shown to be cleaved in the alpha chain, which was decreased in mol.wt. by about 9000, corresponding to the removal of subcomponent C4a.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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