Fig. 3. Association of complement system components with development of heart failure.
Diagram of protein interactions in the complement system based on a published review59. The three activation pathways (red borders) lead to activation of complement factor 3 which amplifies the signal via feedback loops, and further activates the two common effector pathways: the anaphylatoxins and the terminal complement complex (blue dashed borders). Directionality of significant associations (p < 0.05) with incident heart failure (HF) from Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusting for age and sex (n = 583 population-representative controls, 185 cases) is indicated for each component with color codes, where red indicates higher concentration with incident HF, green lower concentrations, and yellow no significant association. White color indicates that the component was not present on the aptamer-based proteomics platform.