Siero amiloide A e flogosi

Serum amyloid A (SAA) is an apolipoprotein that consists mainly of two acute-phase isoforms, namely SAA1 and SAA2, the concentration of which increases up to 1000-fold following tissue injury, infection or other inflammatory stimuli. Although the biological significance of acute-phase SAA is far from being elucidated, this protein is a well established laboratory marker for inflammation that parallels C-reactive protein (CRP) in several infectious and inflammatory diseases. Moreover, SAA has proved to be superior to CRP in detecting acute renal allograft rejection and in management of patients with AA amyloidosis. Its use in combination with CRP and procalcitonin has been proposed to increase the diagnostic performance in early and late-onset neonatal sepsis. In recent years, the growing evidence of a role of SAA in lipid metabolism and the demonstration of its extrahepatic production in atherosclerotic plaques and adipose tissue, particularly in obese individuals, have pointed out its potential significance as a marker of atherosclerotic risk and disease severity and its possible contribution to atherogenesis. Finally, data derived from the proteomic analysis of serum of patients with cancer indicate that SAA might be used to detect a pattern of events reflecting tumor growth and host response.