Acute Phase Proteins : The Liver Essay

The immune system is made up of several types of cells that work together to fight infections. Lymph cells (called lymphocytes) are the main type of cell in the adaptive immune system. There are 2 types of lymph cells: T cells and B cells. When B cells respond to an infection, they change into plasma cells. The plasma cells are found mainly in the bone marrow—the soft, inner part of some bones. The plasma cells

Autoimmune diseases: The Immune system is provided by the body to keep the human system healthy, and virus/bacteria free. Autoimmune diseases occur when a T lymphocyte cell escapes the lymphoid and mistakes an organ/system/tissue for a virus, this rogue T cell than instructs B lymphocytes cells to develop antibodies. These special antibodies are known as ‘autoantibodies’ (special blood proteins that target the individual’s body parts). Autoimmune diseases are supposedly triggered, this is a broad group ranging from being inherited or viruses/hormones.

Exponential Phase: at this stage there is a rise in the number of antibodies in the body because they are being secreted by a large number of plasma cells.

this occurs in a series of steps, the first of which is incorporation of unidentified antigens by APCs in the epidermis and dermis. This process involves binding of the antigens to the MHC on the APC surface and the APC migrates to the lymph nodes. There, the APC binds reversibly and briefly with naïve or resting T cells through interactions between surface molecules located on both cells. Next, the MHC presents the antigen to a T lymphocyte receptor to begin activation of the T lymphocyte. The second signal for T lymphocyte activation is a non-antigen/ cell-cell interaction known as costimulation. If costimulation does not occur, the T lymphocyte will either undergo apoptosis or become unresponsive. Costimulation involves pairing of receptor with ligand on the T cell; these pairs include (LFA)-3 interacting with CD2, B7 interacting with CD28, and ICAM-1 interacting with LFA-1 (Lebwohl, 2003).

A disorder where the body is attacking itself is known as an autoimmune disorder. In an autoimmune disorder the body cannot decipher between a pathogen, bacteria, or infection attacking the body and normal healthy body tissue. The majority of autoimmune disorders are long lasting or even permanent. An example of a chronic autoimmune disorder is multiple sclerosis (MS).

Diabetes is an auto-immune condition where either not enough/any insulin is produced or the cells no longer respond to the insulin being released. (2) This causes a breakdown as glucose can no longer enter the cells. There are a multitude of harmful complications of diabetes such as damage to your heart, brain and

The bone marrow is responsible for producing red blood cells, platelets, white blood cells, B cells, and natural killer cells. These cells are formed through the process of hematopoiesis where stem cells are separated into mature cells or sent to another part of the body where they can be matured.

The immune system is responsible for protecting us from external pathogenic attack. Humans are born with an innate immune system where the white blood cells help to fight against disease causing agents. Overtime they acquire adaptive immunity. A genetic condition where mutation disrupts the innate immune system is known as Severe combined immune deficiency. It is a X-linked primary genetically inherited condition where the newborn child has a non working immune system and is susceptible to all diseases with no defense. The disease was first diagnosed around 60 years ago when some infants were born exceptionally lymphopenic and died at early age. The disorder in the immune system is caused by T cells, B cells or NK cells of the white blood cells

This cell surface marker of CD11c will allow us to distinguish the IgM memory population within our mice, from other populations of cells that are produced by the immune system during its response to the foreign antigen. Another indicator that will allow for us to know which cells are those that have been transferred is through the use of a fluorescent tag known as enhanced yellow fluorescent protein

The immune system (the bodily system that protects the body from foreign substances, cells, and tissues by producing the immune response) fails in the condition of lupus. Our immune system is what protects us from getting sick, it produces antibodies (a large number of proteins with higher molecular weight that are produced normally by specialized B cells after stimulation by an antigen

B cells are a third class of important immune system cells. They do not kill the invaders, but they do tell the killers who to kill. B cells produce specific protein called Antibodies. Each B cell watches out for a particular pathogen and when that pathogen arrives, e B cell begins to produce specific antibodies. Antibodies attach themselves to the specific pathogen so that the killers can recognise that these pathogens need to be destroyed.

The systemic response results in a variety of pathophysiolocigal changes aimed at repairing the injury (Whicher and Westacott, 1992), and it is accompanied by the hepatic synthesis and release of several plasma proteins, known as acute phase proteins (APP) (Baumann and Gauldie, 1990), which initiate the anti-inflammatory process through a wide range of biological functions. The pattern of responding APP varies between animal species, and they are classified as major, moderate, minor and negative APP based on their increase in plasma (Murata et al., 2004). Positive associations have been established between circulating concentrations of specific APP and the extent of particular disorders in different species, which support their potential use as health markers in animals. Nevertheless, they act as non-specific markers, as they do not clarify the etiology of disease (Petersen et al., 2004) but are able to disclose the presence of inflammatory lesions, whether they are primary or secondary to other disorders (Eckersall, 1995).

With autoimmune diseases, the underlying issue is similar. The body's immune system becomes unable to recognize healthy cells from diseased cells. Consequently, the immune’s own defense mechanism produces antibodies that attack the normal tissues and cells. Autoimmune diseases

Another type of cells that protect your body is the Phagocytes. Phagocytes are types of white blood cells that directly ingest the harmful pathogens through the process of phagocytosis. They bind to the pathogen and engulf it. When it engulfs the pathogen, Phagocytes keep the antigen so it can be presented to cells to make antibodies. (Kidshealth.org)

These are plasma proteins which are released into the blood stream, mainly produced in the liver by the hepatocytes (Cray et al., 2009) as part of the Acute Phase Response (APR), that either increase or decrease in response to the tissue damage (Jain et al., 2011; Stahl, 1987; Gruys et al., 2005). The APR is a non-specific and complex systemic reaction, part of the early-defense or innate immune system, which is triggered by different stimuli such as infections, trauma and inflammations in order to reconstitute homeostasis and induce healing (Cray et al., 2009; Tothova et al., 2014). As well as in humans, APP in animals are sensitive to similar triggering events in response to inflammatory stimuli. A variety of APP have been recorded, such as: fibrinogen, haptoglobin (HP), serum amyloid A (SAA); C-reactive protein (CRP); ceruloplasmin (CER), major acute phase protein (MAP) and α1 acid glycoprotein (AGP) (Stahl, 1987; Gruys et al., 2005); differentiating their levels according to each species (Cray et al., 2009; Eckersall and Bell, 2010). Thus, APP have been described for their application in human medicine to diagnose and prognosticate different inflammatory and organ diseases. However; altered levels of APP monitored in animals might provide an alternative method to measure conditions or situations that may be influencing the concentration of these proteins in plasma (Tothova et al., 2014). For instance, in livestock; APP have been presented as markers of health