Strategies for targeting complement inhibitors in ischaemia/reperfusion injury

A transplanted organ suffers inherently from an ischaemic insult and subseq uent reperfusion injury. The severity of such early events is thought to in fluence the success of the transplant procedure, not only in the immediate post-transplant period, but also to predispose the graft to both acute and chronic rejection. In this paper, we review the influence of the complement system upon ischaemia/reperfusion injury. The recognition of the involveme nt of complement has led to novel strategies to try to modulate ischaemia/r eperfusion injury, some of which we have summarized. Finally, we note our o wn strategy to target complement inhibition in ischaemic tissues. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.