[Complement 3 in hypertension and arteriosclerosis].
The serum levels, residual functional activity (RFA), phenotype of complement component 3 (C3) were determined in 20 patients with hypertensive disease (HD), 11 with documented coronary atherosclerosis (CA), and 11 with HD + CA. The sera from 21 apparently healthy subjects were used as a control. There was a higher frequency of the allotype C3F in the HD, CA, and HD + CA groups (0.400, 0.417, and 0.364, respectively) than in the controls. The HD + CA group showed a significant (p less than 0.05) decrease in RFA of C3 as compared to the HD and CA groups. There were significant differences in the serum C3 concentrations and RFA in allotype C3F carriers between the patients with CA and HD. The findings suggest that allotype C3F carriage may be a factor predisposing to accelerated progression of CA in HD.