Acute phase proteins in ruminants

The physiological response to infections and injuries involves local inflammation and the initiation of events leading to a systemic response, also called acute phase reaction (APR). This multiplicity of changes is distant from the site of injury, and includes fever, leukocytosis and quantitative and qualitative modification of a group of non-structurally related proteins present in blood and other biological fluids, collectively named Acute Phase Proteins (APP). Proteomic investigations of serum or plasma following natural or experimental infection frequently reveal substantial alterations in the APP, several of which are high abundance proteins in these fluids. The present review will focus on the results of recent research on ruminant APP. Highlight points will include: - The structure and the functions of the main APPs in ruminants, as well as the regulatory mechanisms that trigger their systemic and local expression in both physiological and pathological conditions. - The clinical aspects of APPs in ruminants, including the current and future application to veterinary diagnosis and animal production. - The APP in small and wildlife ruminants. - Alteration in APP detected by proteomic investigations. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Farm animal proteomics. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.