Complement Component 3 Is Required for Tissue Damage, Neutrophil Infiltration, and Ensuring NET Formation in Acute...

Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are known to play an important role in the pathophysiology of acute pancreatitis (AP). Activation of the complement cascade has been shown to occur in AP. The aim of this study was to examine whether complement component 3 is involved in the generation of NETs in AP.

AP was induced in wild-type and C3-deficient mice by retrograde infusion of taurocholate into the pancreatic duct. Blood, lung, and pancreas tissue were collected and MPO activity was determined in lung and pancreas tissue. Histological examination of the inflamed pancreas was performed. Plasma levels of CXCL2, MMP-9, IL-6, and DNA-histone complexes as well as pancreatic levels of CXCL1 and CXCL2 were determined by use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. NETs were detected in the pancreas by electron microscopy. The amount of MPO and citrullinated histone 3 in neutrophils isolated from bone marrow was examined using flow cytometry.

In C3-deficient mice, challenge with taurocholate yielded much fewer NETs in the pancreatic tissue compared with wild-type controls. Taurocholate-induced blood levels of amylase, tissue injury, and neutrophil recruitment in the pancreas were markedly reduced in the mice lacking C3. Furthermore, MPO levels in the lung, and plasma levels of IL-6, MMP-9, and CXCL2 were significantly lower in the C3-deficient mice compared to wild-type mice after the induction of AP. In vitro studies revealed that neutrophils from C3-deficient mice had normal NET-forming ability and recombinant C3a was not capable of directly inducing NETs formation in the wild-type neutrophils.

C3 plays an important role in the pathophysiology of AP as it is necessary for the recruitment of neutrophils into the pancreas and ensuring NETs formation. Targeting C3 could hence be a potential strategy to ameliorate local damage as well as remote organ dysfunction in AP.