Elevated plasma levels of C3a complement compound in the exudative form of age-related macular degeneration.
OBJECTIVE
Recent findings suggest that chronic inflammatory processes play a role in the progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Here we asked whether the development of different forms of AMD is connected with the elevation of plasma C3a-desArg concentration.


METHODS
We recruited 30 subjects with a clinical diagnosis of exudative AMD with newly diagnosed choroidal neovascularization (CNV), 30 subjects with dry AMD and 30 age- and sex-matched volunteers without AMD. The concentration of C3a-desArg complement compound was measured in the subjects' peripheral blood. We evaluated the association between the level of C3a-desArg and age, sex, smoking, atherosclerosis, and hypertension.


RESULTS
We found that the levels of C3a-desArg were significantly elevated in patients with exudative AMD compared to the control group. The concentrations of C3a-desArg in patients with dry AMD were similar to those of controls. Additionally, patients and controls with documented atherosclerosis (AS) displayed significantly higher levels of C3a-desArg compared to subjects without AS.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest an association between systemic complement activation and the development of CNV. Moreover, we found an association of complement activation with atherosclerosis and confirmed the hypothesis that AMD can be a local manifestation of systemic disease.
Machalińska
Anna
A
Department of Physiopathology, Pomeranian Medical University, Szczecin, Poland.
Dziedziejko
Violetta
V
Mozolewska-Piotrowska
Katarzyna
K
Karczewicz
Danuta
D
Wiszniewska
Barbara
B
Machaliński
Bogusław
B
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000706:Anaphylatoxins / Q000378:metabolism; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000097:blood; D020256:Choroidal Neovascularization / Q000097:blood; D003167:Complement Activation; D015926:Complement C3a / Q000378:metabolism*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005122:Exudates and Transudates; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000097:blood; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000097:blood
D000706:Anaphylatoxins; C044541:complement C3a, des-Arg-(77)-; D015926:Complement C3a