Human C8 is one of five complement components (C5b, C6, C7, C8, and C9) that assemble on bacterial membranes to form a porelike structure referred to as the "membrane attack complex"(MAC) []. C8 contains three subunits (C8alpha, C8beta, C8gamma) arranged as a disulfide-linked C8alpha-gamma heterodimer that is noncovalently associated with C8beta []. This entry represents C8 gamma, which belongs to the lipocalin family of proteins that display a β-barrel fold and generally bind small, hydrophobic ligands []. The structure of C8 gamma has been solved [, ].
