EN
Acute phase proteins became an interesting point of investigations also in veterinary medicine. In the last several years, there has been considerable progress in studies on the understanding of their functions, and influences on the organism. The benefit to laboratory and clinical diagnosis of diseases has been established also. In general, the acute phase response is a result of proinflammatory cytokines being secreted into the circulation from sites of infection or inflammatory lesions. Among the many pathophysiological responses of an animal to stimulation, there is an increased production and secretion of some plasma proteins from the liver, which are known in generally as acute phase proteins. Despite the uniform nature of the acute phase response, there are numerous differences in the production of acute phase proteins between various animal species. In bovine medicine, the principle acute phase protein to be used is haptoglobin in conjunction with serum amyloid A, which are elevated in some important bovine inflammatory diseases such as laminitis, metritis, or mastitis, as well as in some physiological conditions. Investigations over the last decade have shown that the quantification of their concentrations in plasma or serum can provide valuable diagnostic information in the detection, prognosis and monitoring of disease. Moreover, monitoring the blood concentrations of acute phase proteins can provide additional information on the progression of the inflammatory reaction. The circulating concentration of these proteins is related to the severity of the underlying condition and thus quantification of their concentrations provides a ready means of evaluating the presence and extent of the disease processes causing the response.