WHY ARE THERE THREE PATHWAYS FOR ACTIVATING COMPLEMENT?
Major advantage is that when a individual has a deficient in a
complement component of one of these pathways the others can
function to eliminate dangerous antigens or immunogens. However, if
this complement component deficience is present in two pathways,
patients can have the most severe clinical manifestation, suffering
frequent severe bacterial infections.
Besides, these three pathway can function together to carry out a
number of basic functions including:
Lysis of cells, bacteria, and viruses
Opsonization, wich promotes phagocytosis of particulate
antigens.
If one pathway fails, due to mutation others, can compensate and the function of the pathway remains. In some cases it can also be used to tune the degree of activity or speed of activation.
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