Treatment of Severe Sepsis with C1-Inhibitor

Sepsis has a high mortality rate. Clinical signs and symptoms result from the release and activation of inflammatory mediators. Among these mediators are plasma cascade systems such as the complement systems, the contact activation system and the coagulation system (Fig. 1). Activation of these systems has indeed been demonstrated in sepsis. A typical feature of both the contact and the complement systems is that upon activation they give rise to vasoactive peptides such as bradykinin (contact system) or the anaphylatoxins (complement system). Cl-Inhibitor (Cl-Inh) is the major inactivator of the component Cl of the complement system and of the contact activation system [60, 69, 74, 84].