Böhler J, Donauer J, Schollmeyer P, Hörl W H
Department of Medicine, University of Freiburg, FRG.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 1991;297:215-24. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4899-3629-5_19.
Synthetic membranes activate the complement system to some degree but also clear complement fragments from the circulation by adsorption and/or filtration and dialysis, PAN and PMMA even lower preexisting plasma levels of C3a. Activation of granulocytes measured as elastase release does occur with all membranes and might be due to complement activation. However, in synthetic membranes no correlation exists between levels of complement fragment C3a and elastase release. Instead, even when PMMA membrane lowered preexisting plasma levels of the C3a below baseline, activation of granulocytes to a similar degree as known from cuprophane membranes was observed. This activation did occur with blood flow of 200 ml/min during recirculation, but not without blood flow during incubation of membrane material. We conclude that granulocyte activation in synthetic membranes does not require an activated complement system, but may be a blood flow dependent phenomenon.
