Complement C3 and C-reactive protein levels in patients with stable coronary artery disease

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine whether complement C3 is an indicator of coronary artery disease (CAD). We measured plasma C3 and CRP levels in 278 patients undergoing coronary angiography for typical symptoms of CAD and 269 healthy age and sex matched controls. C3 levels were significantly higher in patients compared with controls (1.15 g/l and 0.92 g/l respectively; p<0.001). In the patient group, C3 levels correlated with BMI, fasting glucose, HbA1c, fibrinogen, CRP and HDL in both men and women. CRP levels were also higher in patients compared with controls (1.14 mg/l and 0.86 mg/l respectively; p=0.005) and correlated with markers of the metabolic syndrome. In a logistic regression model including C3, smoking, hypertension, cholesterol and diabetes, C3 was independently associated with CAD with an odds ratio of 3.20 for a 1 SD increase in C3 levels. In contrast, CRP was not independently associated with CAD in a similar regression analysis. In conclusion, both C3 and CRP plasma levels are elevated in patients with symptoms of CAD. However, C3 seems to be a better indicator of CAD than CRP in this study, suggesting that C3 could be an additional marker for risk stratification in atherosclerosis.

Serum Complement C3 Predicts Renal Arteriolosclerosis in Non-Diabetic Chronic Kidney Disease

“…Serum C3 was shown as a predictor of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) 15) and of new vascular events in women with severe coronary artery disease (CAD) 16) . Serum C3 levels have also been reported to be independently associated with atherosclerosis in patients with CAD 21) and, in that study, serum C3 was a better predictor than serum CRP.…”

“…Insulin and chylomicrons stimulate C3 production from adipocytes 19) . Furthermore, in subjects with MetS, the serum TG and free fatty acid (FFA) have been shown to be closely associated with fasting and postprandial C3 levels [20][21][22] . Serum C3 has been reported to be is associated with insulin resistance, independently of the main indices of obesity 23) .…”

A novel mechanism for hypofibrinolysis in diabetes: the role of complement C3

“…Chronic low grade inflammation is associated with atherothrombosis and C-reactive protein (CRP), as well as complement C3 plasma levels, are predictive of arterial thrombotic events [11,12]. In addition to the inflammatory role of complement, different complement proteins interact directly with the coagulation and thrombotic pathways.…”

“…Furthermore, C3 plasma levels correlate with clot lysis time after correcting for fibrinogen and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1) levels [17], which may be one mechanism for the association between C3 and cardiovascular events [12,[18][19][20].…”

Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor α Positively Regulates Complement C3 Expression but Inhibits Tumor Necrosis Factor α-mediated Activation of C3 Gene in Mammalian Hepatic-derived Cells

“…Acylation stimulating protein and C3a enhance fat storage into adipocytes by increasing triglyceride synthesis and decreasing intracellular lipolysis (16) Importance of C3 for lipid metabolism is argued by observation that C3 knock-out mice, which also have defects in apolipoprotein E and low density lipoprotein receptor genes (C3 (17). Moreover, a high level of C3 in plasma was shown to be a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and atherosclerosis in human (18,19).…”