Different associations of C-reactive protein, fibrinogen and C3 with traditional risk factors in middle-aged men.
BACKGROUND
Some acute phase proteins are associated with both ischemic events and traditional risk factors. Since they are strongly interrelated, each of them partly reflects the characteristics of other proteins. This study was carried out to ascertain the specific preferential associations of some acute phase proteins with traditional risk factors for atherosclerotic disease.


METHODS
High-sensitivity C-reactive protein, fibrinogen and C3-complement were assessed in 288 unselected men aged 55-64 years. Three multiple linear regression analyses were performed, in which each of the three acute phase proteins was considered the dependent variable of both traditional risk factors and the other two proteins.


RESULTS
The three acute phase proteins strongly correlated with each other. Moreover, C-reactive protein was independently associated with triglycerides (P<0.0001), age (P=0.0130), body mass index (P=0.0179), and acute (P=0.0280) and chronic (P=0.0582) inflammations (R2=0.17). Fibrinogen was associated with alcohol consumption (inversely, P=0.0001) and smoking (P=0.0598) (R2=0.06). Finally, C3 was associated with insulin (P<0.0001), cholesterol (P=0.0001), sedentarity (P=0.0028), glucose (P=0.0077), and systolic blood pressure (P=0.0124) (R2=0.28).


CONCLUSIONS
When simultaneously studied in multivariate analysis, acute phase proteins have different preferential associations with traditional risk factors, a probable consequence of their involvement in different cellular activations and metabolic processes.
Muscari
A
A
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Bologna-S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Via Massarenti 9, 40138, Italy. amuscari@med.unibo.it
Bastagli
L
L
Poggiopollini
G
G
Tomassetti
V
V
Massarelli
G
G
Cappelletti
O
O
Platè
L
L
Boni
P
P
Puddu
P
P
D000367:Age Factors; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000378:metabolism*; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL / Q000097:blood; D003176:Complement C3 / Q000378:metabolism*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology; D005340:Fibrinogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged / Q000502:physiology*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood
D015415:Biomarkers; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL; D003176:Complement C3; D014280:Triglycerides; D005340:Fibrinogen; D002097:C-Reactive Protein