An Antigen Density Effect on the Hemolytic Efficiency of Complement

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Abstract
It has been generally accepted for many years that immune hemolysis is a “one-hit” phenomenon in that a single complement-fixing antibody site at the cell surface is sufficient for the complement (C) system to produce a local damaged site (S*) which will lead eventually to lysis of the cell (1). A single molecule of IgM antibody has been shown to be capable of initiating the lytic reaction, by fixing one molecule of the first component of C (C1) (2). It has recently become apparent that not all target cells are equally susceptible to the cytolytic effect of IgM antibody and C, and that fixation of C1 at a sensitized site (SA) does not necessarily guarantee that the remaining C components will be able to convert the resulting SAC1 to S* and produce cytolysis; although this conversion efficiency is as high as 30% to 50% with sheep erythrocytes (E) and anti-Forssman antibody (3), it is only about 0.03% with IgM-sensitized nouse leukemia cells (4).

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