Serum Acute Phase Reactants Research Articles

Metabolic response to infection.

A generalized infectious process leads to a broad and complex array of metabolic responses within the host. Certain of these responses have a direct causal relationship to the interactions of body cells with invading microorganisms or their products, or to specific host defensive mechanisms. Other host metabolic responses have less clearly defined roles although they involve many tissues and seem to be initiated and regulated by certain hormones-like endogenous mediators. These latter responses contribute to the maintenance of body homeostasis, the provision of metabolizable energy to meet increased body needs, and the synthesis of the acute phase reactant serum proteins.

Assessment in Rheumatoid Arthritis

We have studied 187 patients with rheumatoid arthritis for periods ranging from three months to six years; 55 of them were observed for more than three years. The aim of the study was to compare changes in clinical state with changes in measurements of the blood levels of two acutephase reactants (C-reactive protein and haptoglobin). The results showed that measurements of the serum acute-phase reactants reflected exacerbation or remission of arthritis when such changes occurred over short periods of time—for example a few months. The serum acute-phase reactants also reflected the course of rheumatoid arthritis over longer periods of time; in patients studied for more than three years there was a close correlation between the course of the disease and the levels of the acute-phase reactants. We suggest that measurements of the serum acute-phase reactants provide an accurate and objective way of assessing the progress of rheumatoid arthritis and of its response to treatment.