[Therapeutic implication of plasma C3 rich fraction against bacterial infection in surgical patients]

The depleted plasma opsonic activity is a major provoking cause of severe postoperative infection in patients who underwent extended surgical procedures. In order to establish the therapeutic use of C3 rich fraction (C3RF) for these patients in place of large amount of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) replacement, a basic study was done dealt with this fraction which was extracted from FFP with polyethyleneglycol. The results were as follows. (1) Addition of minimum amount of C3RF in vitro sufficiently revived the opsonic activity of opsonin exhausted guinea pig's plasma with heating or treating with cobra venom factor (CVF). (2) The clearance of E. coli 075 from peritoneal cavity and from blood stream in CVF treated guinea pigs was much delayed. However, in vivo administration of C3RF remarkably improved the clearance of bacteria and survival rate of opsonin depleted animal in E. coli peritonitis (p less than 0.05). (3) Opsonin lowered plasma samples in postoperative, septic, or cirrhotic patients were revived by not only replacing FFP, but also by adding minimum amount of C3RF. These results suggest that transfusion of C3RF should have beneficial effect in surgical patients with severely depleted plasma opsonic activity.