Increased serum complement C3 and C4 concentrations and their relation to severity of chronic spontaneous urticaria and CRP concentration

Journal of Inflammation, Sep 2018

Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CU) is associated with activation of the acute phase response (APR). Nevertheless, APR-associated proteins have not been well characterized as potential biomarkers of the disease severity. To assess the pattern of complement proteins C3 and C4 – the acute phase reactants in patients with CU. C3, C4 and CRP concentrations were measured in serum of 70 patients showing different degrees of urticarial severity as well as in 33 healthy subjects. Serum C3 and C4 concentrations were significantly increased in CU patients as compared with the healthy subjects and exceed the normal lab range by about 5% and 10%, respectively. Significant differences were found between patients with mild and increased CU severity. In addition, significant correlations were observed between C3, C4 and CRP concentrations. More severe CU is characterized by higher production of C3 and C4 complements accompanied by parallel changes in CRP concentration.

A PDF file should load here. If you do not see its contents the file may be temporarily unavailable at the journal website or you do not have a PDF plug-in installed and enabled in your browser.

Alternatively, you can download the file locally and open with any standalone PDF reader:

http://www.journal-inflammation.com/content/pdf/1476-9255-10-22.pdf

Increased serum complement C3 and C4 concentrations and their relation to severity of chronic spontaneous urticaria and CRP concentration

Journal of Inflammation Increased serum complement C3 and C4 concentrations and their relation to severity of chronic spontaneous urticaria and CRP concentration Alicja Kasperska-Zajac 0 3 Alicja Grzanka 1 3 Edyta Machura 2 3 Maciej Misiolek 3 6 Bogdan Mazur 3 5 Jerzy Jochem 3 4 0 Clinical Department of Internal Diseases, Allergology and Clinical Immunology , ul. Ceglana 35, 40-952 Katowice , Poland 1 Department of Internal Diseases , Dermatology and Allergology , Medical University of Silesia 2 Department of Pediatric in Zabrze, Medical University of Silesia , Katowice , Poland 3 in Katowice , Katowice , Poland 4 Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Medical University of Silesia , ul. Piekarska 18, 41-902 Bytom , Poland 5 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical University of Silesia , ul. Jordana 19, 41-808 Zabrze , Poland 6 Clinical Department of Otolaryngology in Zabrze, Medical University of Silesia , Katowice , Poland Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CU) is associated with activation of the acute phase response (APR). Nevertheless, APR-associated proteins have not been well characterized as potential biomarkers of the disease severity. To assess the pattern of complement proteins C3 and C4 - the acute phase reactants in patients with CU. C3, C4 and CRP concentrations were measured in serum of 70 patients showing different degrees of urticarial severity as well as in 33 healthy subjects. Serum C3 and C4 concentrations were significantly increased in CU patients as compared with the healthy subjects and exceed the normal lab range by about 5% and 10%, respectively. Significant differences were found between patients with mild and increased CU severity. In addition, significant correlations were observed between C3, C4 and CRP concentrations. More severe CU is characterized by higher production of C3 and C4 complements accompanied by parallel changes in CRP concentration. Complement; C3; C4; Acute phase response; Chronic urticaria - Introduction Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CU) is associated with systemic inflammation and neuroimmunendocrine dysfunction, during which the acute phase response (APR) and coagulation/firbrinolysis processes are activated. Nevertheless, apart from IL-6 and C-reactive protein (CRP), other APR-associated proteins have not been well characterized as potential biomarkers of the disease severity [1-7]. It is known that the complement system is involved in mast cells activation in the course of CU [8]. The system is composed of many proinflammatory proteins. Among those, C3 is critical for activation of the complement system as a whole. On the other hand, C4 is the major protein of the classical cascade. They play an important role in the immune/inflammatory response and are upregulated during APR [9]. Nevertheless, APR pattern as well as the behaviour components of the complement system have not been well characterized in the disease. Serum complement C3 and C4 concentrations were measured in CU patients with different degrees of urticarial severity in comparison with healthy subjects and normal population reference ranges. Methods Seventy non-smoking patients with active chronic spontaneous urticaria of 13 months mean disease duration (range 440 months) without any concomitant physical urticaria were enrolled in the study. Urticaria activity score (UAS) was estimated during four days and on the day of blood sampling: no wheals = 0, 1 10 wheals = 1, 1150 wheals = 2, >50 wheals = 3) and pruritus intensity (no = 0, mild = 1, moderate = 2, severe = 3). UAS scores: daily (minimum = 0; maximum = 6) and four days by adding the daily score values (minimum = 0; maximum = 24). The UAS was graded as follows: 08 (mild), 916 (moderate) and 1724 (severe). Our study comprised 20 patients with mild and 50 patients with moderatesevere utricaria symptoms as per the four days UAS. None of the examined subjects had taken oral corticosteroids or antidepressants within 8 weeks or antihistamines within at least 4 days before the study. Autologous serum skin test (ASST) and other investigations had been performed to exclude any known causes of the diseases or the concomitant diseases. Among those, routine dental and laryngological consultations were performed to exclude the infectious foci. The patients were divided into two groups: ASSTpositive (n = 29) and ASST-negative (n = 41). The control group consisted of 33 sex-, age- and BMI (<30) matched healthy subjects. None of the controls took any medication for at least 14 days before the study. The Ethics Committee of the Medical University of Silesia approved of the study and written, informed consent was obtained from all the subjects participating. Assay of C3 and C4 Serum C3 and C4 concentrations were measured by the immunoturbidimetric method on Roche/Hitachi cobas c systems with a detection limit of 0.04 and 0.02 g/L, respectively. Normal range: (0.9 1.8 g/L) for C3 and (0.1 0.4 g/L) for C4. Assay of CRP Serum CRP conce (...truncated)


This is a preview of a remote PDF: http://www.journal-inflammation.com/content/pdf/1476-9255-10-22.pdf

Alicja Kasperska-Zajac, Alicja Grzanka, Edyta Machura, Maciej Misiolek, Bogdan Mazur, Jerzy Jochem. Increased serum complement C3 and C4 concentrations and their relation to severity of chronic spontaneous urticaria and CRP concentration, Journal of Inflammation, 2013, pp. 22, 10, DOI: 10.1186/1476-9255-10-22