Role of complement in host defense against bacterial infection.

This short review will highlight three areas of current research on the role of complement in bacterial infection. These are i) the use of mice with targeted disruption of complement genes to study infectious disease models; ii) studies on the interactions between bacterial virulence factors and complement regulatory proteins; and iii) the description of a novel strategy by which mycobacteria promote complement activation and use complement receptors to gain entry into macrophages.