HEMOLYTIC COMPLEMENT 217 



difFercnce in tlie waj' the biiidinp; to the coll occurs, rather than in the nieth(Ki of 

 action of the complement. Landsteiner and others have suRKested that a lij)oir|al 

 complement dissolves the corpuscle lipoids, lil)eratinK the hemoRlohin, while 

 Neiiher^ and others have supported the hypothesis that conipieiuent is virtually 

 a lipase which splits the lipnids out of the corj)Uscles. Hordct believes that the 

 hemolysin causes a lesion of the stroma which chanses the resistance to osmotic 

 influences. Complement is present in the plasma in about the same amounts 

 as in the corresponding sera, so it is not a substance set free only by coaf^uiation of 

 the blood (W'atanabe).'" Dick'^ has found evidence that the complement is a 

 ferment formed in the liver, and that it causes actual proteol5'tic chanp;es. Job- 

 ling" associates the serum lipase with the hemolytic complement.'* Ohta'* 

 ol)served no increase in non-coagulable nitrogen during hemolysis, but Dick 

 found an increase in the free amino acids; therefore, as yet agreement has not been 

 reached as to whether hemolysis depends in any way upon proteolysis or lipolysis 

 in the corpuscle stroma. 



Although the serum of one animal may complement the immune bodies in 

 serum of several other varieties, and also produce lysis of many sorts of cells, it may 

 be that not one complement does all the complementing; Ehrlich and others have 

 asserted that one serum may contain several complements of slightly differing 

 natures. Noguchi,'" Liebermann and Fenyvessy, and others have pointed out the 

 striking resemblance between hemolytic complement and certain compounds of 

 soaps or lipoids with serum proteins, and it is possible that such compounds are 

 of importance in serum hemolysis; but there seems also to be evidence of the 

 existence of distinct protein complements, entirely different from these,"' and it is 

 possible that the protein complements are the important agents in specific hemo- 

 lysis by immune sera.'* 



Antibodies can be obtained for both complement and hemolytic amboceptor by 

 immunizing against serum containing them, and in manj^ serums antihemolysins 

 exist normally. Against certain vegetable hemolysins this antihemolytic action is 

 very strong (Kobert). Antihemolysins are generally anticomplements, but in a 

 number of instances anti-amboceptors have been obtained. The existence of im- 

 mune bodies specific for hemolytic amboceptor and complement, supports the view 

 that both of these agents are proteins. 



In hemolysis as in bacteriolysis the complement exhibits two function^, corres- 

 ponding to the "end-piece" and" mid-piece" fractions. Herzfeld and Klinger'^o con- 

 sider the mid-piece to be a globulin which renders the surface of the corpuscles more 



"' Jour. Immunol., 1919 (4), 77. 



"2 Jour. Infect. Dis., 1913 (12), 111. 



" Jobling and Bull, Jour. Exper. Med., 1913 (17), 61; also Bergel, Deut. Arch, 

 klin. Med., 1912 (106), 47. 



~* Thiele and Embleton, however, state that hemolysin is not a lipase, and 

 that the hemolytic power of serum has no relation to its lipolytic power (Jour. 

 Path, and Bact., 1914 (19), 349). 



" Biochem. Zeit., 1912 (46), 247; see also McNeil and Kahn, Jour. Immunol., 

 1918 (3), 295. 



'« Biochem. Zeit., 1907 (6), 172 and 327; Jour. Exper. Med., 1907 (9), 436. 



'' SeeLiefmann, el al., Zeit. Immunitiit., 1912 (13), 150. 



^'Liebermann and Fenyvessy (loc cit.y"" believe that serum hemolysis takes 

 place as follows: First, the amboceptor acts on the corpuscle, injuring it so 

 that it becomes less resistant; second, this combination acts upon the comple- 

 ment (a soap compound) and frees the soap so that it can unite with the ambo- 

 ceptor-corpuscle system; third, the soap causes hemolysis; fourth (as a separate 

 step), the escape of the hemoglobin from the corpuscles. Tissot ascribes import- 

 ance to the fatty acids of the plasma (Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci., 1919 (168), 1283). 

 Bergel (Zeit Immunitiit., 1918 (27), 441) supports the hypothesis that immune 

 hemolysis and agglutination depend on a solution of the lipoids of the cells. In 

 this reaction the lipoids act as antigen, the new-formed amboceptor is formed by 

 the lipoids of the lymphocj-tes as a zymogen which is activated by serum comple- 

 ment, and is specifically bound by the lipoid antigens of the corpuscles. That is, 

 the lipoids are the haptophore groups of the antigen; they bind the receptor of the 

 thermostabile lipase zymogen, which is activated by the non-specific complement. 



'8" Biochem. Zeit., 1918 (87), 36. 



