Abstract
Activated complement levels of C3a, C4a, and C5a were examined during plasmapheresis with six kinds of plasmaseparator and two types of plasmafilter composed of CDA. While increase in venous C3a and C5a were higher in celluosic membrane than those in synthetic ones, the sieving coefficients (SC) of C3a and C5a were extremely high in PVA and PMMA compared to those in cellulose. This finding indicated that these two membranes stronghy activated complement intra-membranously. High SC of C4a in PVA demonstrated that PVA might activate complement via alternative (AP) and classical pathways (CP). PP and PE showed little increase in complements. In double filtration plasmapheresis, one type of filter activated complements via AP but the other one reduced complement levels in filtrated plasma.
These results indicate that plasma separators activate complements at the membrane surface and intra-membranously via mainly AP and partially CP, and membrane material is not the sole factor which determines the complement activation of plasmafilter.
