Allotypes of C3 in Laboratory and Wild Mouse Distinguished by Alloantisera

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Abstract
Structural variations of murine complement C3 are controlled by a single codominant locus. Previous report from this laboratory described production of the alloantiserum directed to one of the C3 allotypes. The second alloantiserum, specific for the gene product of the C3-1b allele, was produced in NC mice by injecting partially purified C3 of BALB/c mouse. This antiserum reacted with C3-1 B, C3-1 AB, or C3-1 BC phenotype, but it did not react with either C3-1 A or C3-1 C phenotype. By the use of this antiserum it was found that C3 in mouse plasma or serum of all of 27 inbred strains previously typed as C3-1 B by IEF are not distinguished from each other antigenically. This implies that C3 in these mice is the gene product coded for by the same allele, C3-1b. With two different alloantisera, one directed to C3-1 B, the other directed to C3-1 A, we phenotyped 106 wild mice collected from four countries in Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Japan). All mice trapped outside Japan, which belong to either Mus musculus bactrianus or Mus musculus castaneus, had C3-1 B phenotype. On the other hand, mice that were trapped in eight out of nine places of Japan and belong to Mus musculus molossinus subspecies are polymorphic for C3. Three C3 phenotypes were found among Japanese wild mice: C3-1 A, C3-1 B, and C3-1 AB. Based on the reactivity with two alloantisera and IEF analysis, it is now possible to identify all of C3 allotypes in mice of four subspecies of Mus musculus.