Protein sgp 120 as a marker of an acquired angioedema.

Abstract

Angioedema is not an event peculiar to an acute-phase response. We registered the appearance of angioedema in four nonatopic patients suffering from diverse inflammatory stimuli. Serum concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP), haptoglobin, alpha1-antitrypsin, alpha2-macroglobulin, C3, C4, C1INH and protein sgp 120 (classified as a regulatory protein of the complement system) were assessed over 7 consecutive days, beginning with the onset of angioedema in these four patients. Instead of returning to the normal level, CRP peaked again on the 4th day (A-test, P<0.05) and declined significantly by the 7th day (A-test, P<0.05). Serum levels of sgp 120, C3c and C1INH increased gradually up to the 5th day but only sgp 120 was significantly raised in relation to the initial value (P< 0.05). In our patients, we registered four diverse profiles of the acute-phase proteins (Kruskal-Wallis test, P<0.05) probably due to the diverse nature of the pre-existing inflammatory stimuli. According to these results, the unexpected appearance of angioedema implies the contribution of sgp 120 as the main source of fragments with kinin-like properties.