The Complement 
Genetics Homepage

The Complement Genetics Group at the Institute of Legal Medicine
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
The Complement System
Chromosomal Locations
Genetic Polymorphism
Inherited Deficiencies
Genetics Workshops
References
Links
Our Group in Mainz Intro-
duction		 In 1985, Christian Rittner took over the Chair of Legal Medicine at the University in Mainz. Coming from the University of Bonn, he brought with him 15 years of experience in complement and HLA research. In April 1986, Peter Schneider joined the group again after working for 1 1/2 years as a visiting research fellow in Harvey Colten's group at the Harvard Medical School in Boston. 
Complement research was already well established in Mainz due to the research activities of the late Paul Klein' group at the Insitute of Medical Microbiology. Thus complement genetics was an excellent 'complementation' for the existing research activities at the Mainz University Medical School. 
Since then, our group has initiated numerous projects in the field of complement and HLA genetics, as well as successfully organized two Complement Genetics Workshops in 1989 and 1998.
Christian Rittner has retired as chairman of the institute in 2003.
Top of Page Members
    Group leader
  • Peter M. Schneider

    • Scientist
  • Klaus Bender

    • Research Technicians
  • Petra Everke
  • Jutta Lummer
  • Beate Stradmann-Bellinghausen

    • M.D., Ph.D. and Diploma Students
  • Michaela Mack
  • Tanja Beissmann
  • Patricia Hähnel

    • Alumni
  • Giovanna Barba & Gerald Späth (now at Rockefeller University, New York) 
  • Konstanze Witzel-Schlömp (left in September 2000)
  • Lin Zhang (left in Feb. 1999, now in Chengdu, PRC)
    •  
Top of Page Research
Projects
  • The functional role of the endogenous retroviral insertion HERV-K(C4) in the human C4 gene.
  • Molecular basis and definition of complement polymorphism and deficiency for C3, C4, C8 and C9.
  • Functional basis of the association of MHC class II alleles with chronic Hepatitis B infection and nonresponders to HBsAg vaccination
Key Publications
  • Schneider PM, Carroll MC, Alper CA, Rittner C, Whitehead AS, Yunis EJ, Colten HR. (1986) Polymorphism of the human complement C4 and steroid 21- hydroxylase genes: Restriction fragment length polymorphisms revealing structural deletions, homoduplications and size variants. J. Clin. Invest. 78: 650-657
  • Miura N, Prentice HL, Schneider PM, Perlmutter DH. (1987) Synthesis and regulation of the two human complement C4 genes in stable transfected mouse fibroblasts. J. Biol. Chem. 262: 7298-7305
  • Rittner C, Schneider PM. (1989) Complexity of MHC class III genes and complement polymorphism. Immunol. Today 10: 401-403
  • Braun L, Schneider PM, Giles CM, Bertrams J, Rittner C. (1990) Null alleles of human complement C4: Evidence for pseudogenes at the C4A locus and for gene conversion at the C4B locus. J. Exp. Med. 171: 129-140
  • Barba G, Rittner C, Schneider PM. (1993) Genetic basis of human complement C4A deficiency: detection of a point mutation leading to nonexpression. J. Clin. Invest. 91: 1681-1686
  • Kaufmann T, Hänsch G, Rittner C, Späth P, Tedesco F, Schneider PM. (1993) Genetic basis of human complement C8ß deficiency. J. Immunol. 150: 4943-4947
  • Kaufmann T, Rittner C, Schneider PM. (1993) The human complement component C8B gene: structure and phylogenetic relationship. Hum. Genet. 92: 69-75
  • Chu X, Rittner C, Schneider PM (1995) Length polymorphism of the human complement component C4 is due to an ancient retroviral integration. Exp. Clin. Immunogenet. 12: 53-60
  • Witzel K, Chu X, Rittner C, Schneider PM (1995) PCR analysis of the Xba I polymorphism of the human C4 genes provides evidence for strong haplotype conservation. Hum. Immunol. 43: 165-173
  • Höhler T, Gerken G, Notghi A, Knolle P, Lubjuhn R, Taheri H, Schneider PM, Meyer zum Büschenfelde KH, Rittner C (1997) MHC class II genes influence the susceptibility to chronic hepatitis C. J. Hepatol. 27: 259-264
  • Höhler T, Gerken G, Notghi A, Lubjuhn R, Taheri H, Protzer U, Löhr H, Schneider PM, Meyer zum Büschenfelde KH, Rittner C (1997) HLA-DRB1 *1301 and *1302 protect against chronic hepatitis B. J. Hepatol. 26: 503-507
  • Witzel-Schlömp K, Späth PJ, Hobart M, Fernie B, Rittner C, Kaufmann T, Schneider PM (1997) The human complement C9 gene: Identification of two mutations causing deficiency and revision of the gene structure. J. Immunol. 158: 5043-5049
  • Witzel-Schlömp K, Hobart MJ, Fernie BA, Orren A, Würzner R, Rittner C, Kaufmann T, Schneider PM (1998) Heterogeneity in the genetic basis of human complement C9 deficiency. Immunogenetics 48: 144-147
  • Höhler T, Meyer CU, Notghi A, Stradmann-Bellinghausen B, Schneider PM, Starke R, Zepp F, Sänger R, Clemens R, Meyer zum Büschenfelde KH, Rittner C (1998) The influence of major histocompatibility complex class II genes and T-cell Vß repertoire on response to immunization with HBsAg. Hum. Immunol. 59: 212-218
  • Mauff G, Luther B, Schneider PM, Rittner C, Stradmann- Bellinghausen B, Dawkins R, Moulds JM (1998) Reference typing report for complement component C4. Exp. Clin. Immunogenet. 15: 249-260
  • Schneider PM, Würzner R (1999) Complement genetics: biological implications of polymorphisms and deficiencies. Immunol. Today 20: 2-5
  • Schneider PM, Witzel-Schlömp K, Rittner C, Zhang L (2001) The endogenous retroviral insertion in the human complement C4 gene modulates the expression of homologous genes by antisense inhibition. Immunogenetics 53: 1-9 [reprint in PDF format for download] 
  • Höhler T, Stradmann-Bellinghausen B, Starke R, Sanger R, Victor A, Rittner C, Schneider PM (2002) C4A deficiency and nonresponse to hepatitis B vaccination. J. Hepatol. 37:387-392.
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last update: January 15, 2004