The role of complement in the success of vaccination with conjugated vs. unconjugated polysaccharide antigen

The complement system, a well-characterised arm of the innate immune system, significantly influences the adaptive immune response via direct cell–cell interaction and maintenance of lymphoid organ architecture. Development of vaccines is a major advance in modern health care. In this review, we highlight the importance of the marginal zone in response to both, polysaccharide and conjugated vaccines, and discuss the relevance of complement herein, based on findings obtained from animal models with specific deletions of certain complement components and from vaccination reports of complement-deficient individuals. We conclude that both, intactness of the complement system and maturity of expression of its components, are relatively more important to aid in the immune response to polysaccharide vaccine than to conjugated vaccines.