Ver artículo

Pentraxins are a family of evolutionarily conserved pattern-recognition proteins that are made up of five identical subunits. Based on the primary structure of the subunit, the pentraxins are divided into two groups: short pentraxins and long pentraxins. C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid P-component (SAP) are the two short pentraxins. The prototype protein of the long pentraxin group is pentraxin 3 (PTX3). CRP and SAP are produced primarily in the liver while PTX3 is produced in a variety of tissues during inflammation. The main functions of short pentraxins are to recognize a variety of pathogenic agents and then to either eliminate them or neutralize their harmful effects by utilizing the complement pathways and macrophages in the host. CRP binds to modified low-density lipoproteins, bacterial polysaccharides, apoptotic cells, and nuclear materials. By virtue of these recognition functions, CRP …