The immune system is one of the most important adaptations that has evolved to protect animals from a wide range of pathogens they encounter from early life onwards. During the early developmental period this is particularly true for the innate immunity, as other components of the immune system are, as yet, poorly developed. But innate immunity may not only be crucial for early life survival, b...

The haptoglobin-haemoglobin receptor of the African trypanosome species, Trypanosoma brucei, is expressed when the parasite is in the bloodstream of the mammalian host, allowing it to acquire haem through the uptake of haptoglobin-haemoglobin complexes. Here we show that in Trypanosoma congolense this receptor is instead expressed in the epimastigote developmental stage that occurs in the tsets...

AIM Inflammatory periodontal disease is widespread in dogs. This study evaluated site-specific changes in the canine gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) proteome during longitudinal progression from very mild gingivitis to mild periodontitis. Periodontitis diagnosis in dogs requires general anaesthesia with associated risks and costs; our ultimate aim was to develop a periodontitis diagnostic for a...

We describe a method for determining haptoglobin with a centrifugal analyzer that is based on haptoglobin combining stoichiometrically with hemoglobin to form a complex that has peroxidase-like activity proportional to the quantity of haptoglobin present. Under assay conditions, unbound hemoglobin exhibits only a small fraction of the total peroxidase activity. Activity is measured colorimetric...

This paper presents the results of an electrophoretic survey of approximately 4000 individuals from the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, for four serum proteins: albumin, ceruloplasmin, haptoglobin and transferrin. The haptoglobin gene frequencies obtained for the HP1-HP2 polymorphism are in agreement with earlier reports. Rare electrophoretic variants of albumin, ceruloplasmin and hapt...

A specific, accurate and simple determination of haptoglobin is described with an antiserum against the antigenic determinants of the three haptoglobin phenotypes 1-1, 2-1 and 2-2. Antihaptoglobin is the determining factor in the formation of an antigen-antibody complex with maximal light absorption properties. Haptoglobin concentration is expressed as hemoglobin binding capacity. For the three...

Malaria infection may be affected by host genetic factors as well as nutritional status. Iron status and the phenotype of haptoglobin, a heme-binding acute phase reactant may be determinants of malaria parasitemia. A combination of cross sectional studies and longitudinal follow-up were used to describe the association between iron status, C-reactive protein, malaria infections and host genetic...

Over a period of three years we determined haptoglobin levels by single radial immunodiffusion (RID) and the haptoglobin phenotype in over 1700 samples of patients suspected of a haemolytic disease. As haptoglobin phenotyping is rather laborious and therefore an expensive method, we re-evaluated the diagnostic need for phenotyping. From our reference values for the respective phenotypes of hapt...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the changes in the serum concentrations of haptoglobin (Hp), serum amyloid A (SAA) and IgG, IgA in calves with diarrhea caused by rotavirus, coronavirus, Escherichia coli F5 and Eimeria species. The experiment was carried out on 40 diarrhoeic and 10 non-diarrhoeic calves (group C). A total of 13 calves were infected with rotavirus or coronavirus (group ...

The variation of the haptogIobins of human plasma was shown by Smithies (1955) and Smithies & Walker (1956, 1956) to be a Mendelian trait controlled by two alleles. These two alleles, Hpl and Hp2, co-exist generally in human populations, and their relative proportions exhibit geographic variation. Additional haptoglobin variants have been detected, but their genetic relationships to the first t...