Abstract
The polymorphism of the second component of human complement (C2) was studied by means of isoelectric focusing in polyacrylamide gels followed by immunoblotting with a specific antihuman C2 antibody. The polymorphism was studied in native C2 and in the C2a fragment obtained by activation of the classical pathway with heat-aggregated human IgG. Serum samples previously typed with the hemolytic overlay technique were analyzed. They comprised samples of homozygous C2*C, C2*B, C2*Q0, heterozygous C2*BC and C2*CQ0 individuals. The patterns obtained by immunoblotting corresponded to those obtained by the hemolytic overlay technique. As expected, the homozygous C2*Q0 sample(complement C2 deficiency) did not show any band pattern. The C2a fragment presented also a polymorphic variation which correlated exactly with the native C2 polymorphism. It appears thus that the polymorphic site of the C2 protein is carried by the C2a fragment for the C2*C and C2*B variants. In addition, this method is easier to perform than the common hemolytic overlay technique and the rare C2-deficient serum is not needed.