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Updated: Jan 2, 2026

A Method for Mouse Pancreatic Islet Isolation and Intracellular cAMP Determination
Published on: June 25, 2014
Serum complement C3 and islet β-cell function in patients with type 2 diabetes: A 4.6-year prospective follow-up
Jian-Bin Su1, Yun-Yu Wu2, Feng Xu3
1Department of Endocrinology, Affiliated Hospital 2 of Nantong University, and First People's Hospital of Nantong City, No. 6, Haierxiang North Road, Nantong, 226001, China. sujbzjx@163.com.
Purpose:
Serum complement C3 has been shown to contribute to the incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D), but how serum complement C3 affects islet β-cell function throughout the course of T2D is unclear. This study explored whether serum complement C3 is independently associated with changes in islet β-cell function over time in patients with T2D.
Methods:
Serum complement C3 was measured, and endogenous β-cell function was evaluated by area under the C-peptide curve (AUCcp) during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in 411 patients with T2D at baseline from 2011 to 2015. Next, 347 of those patients with available data were pooled for a final follow-up analysis from 2014 to 2018. Changes in islet β-cell function at follow-up were evaluated by AUCcp percentage changes (ΔAUCcp%). In addition, other possible clinical risks for diabetes were also examined.
Results:
The 347 patients included in the analysis had a diabetes duration of 4.84 ± 3.63 years at baseline. Baseline serum complement C3 (baseline C3) levels were positively correlated with baseline natural logarithm of AUCcp (lnAUCcp) (n = 347, r = 0.288, p < 0.001), and baseline C3 was independently associated with baseline lnAUCcp (β = 0.17, t = 3.52, p < 0.001) after adjustment for baseline glycemic status and other clinical confounders by multivariate liner regression analysis. Compared with the baseline values, complement C3 changes (ΔC3) and ΔAUCcp% was -0.15 ± 0.28 mg/ml and -17.2 ± 18.4%, respectively, at a follow-up visit 4.57 ± 0.78 years later. Moreover, ΔC3 was positively correlated with ΔAUCcp% (n = 347, r = 0.302, p < 0.001). Furthermore, each 0.1 mg/ml increase in ΔC3 was associated with a higher ΔAUCcp% (1.41% [95% CI, 0.82-2.00%]) after adjusting for changes in glycemic status and other clinical confounders at follow-up.
Conclusions:
In addition to serum complement C3 being independently associated with islet β-cell function at baseline, its changes were also independently associated with changes in islet β-cell function over time in patients with T2D.
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