Jiang H, et al. - Researchers investigated a possible association between serum levels of complement-C1q/tumor necrosis factor-related protein-3 (CTRP3) and acute aortic dissection (AAD). This study included 60 patients with AAD, 32 patients with hypertension, and 16 healthy subjects. Serum was collected from study participants, and was followed by assessments of serum levels of CTRP3, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. They found AAD patients vs those with hypertension and healthy subjects had significantly higher IL-6 and TNF-α levels. They observed that development of AAD might be related to decreased levels of CTRP3.