Measurement of complement activation products on antigen arrays

A method for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of complement activation on an antigen array, providing the antigen array with at least two antigens, detecting the covalently bound C3 and/or C4 fragments with a labelled detecting agent, characterised by the following steps:

• Using antigen microarray as antigen array;
• using antigens and reference materials printed side-by-side, as spots of small diameter on the microarray, at high spatial density;
• contacting the antigen microarray with a sample containing both at least one molecule that may be captured by the antigens disposed on the antigen microarray and a functional complement system;
• allowing complement activation to take place in a single reaction chamber per sample on the microarray, resulting in localized, antigen-specific deposition of C3 and/or C4 fragments due to their short half-life;
• measuring bound C3 and/or C4 fragments using detectably labelled agents, preferably detectably directly labelled C3 and/or C4 fragments themselves, covalently bound to the microarray as a result of complement activation by that particular antigen, thereby antigens that captured the molecule capable of complement activation, or initiated complement activation themselves, are detected separately, without interference, in a qualitative and quantitative manner.