BACKGROUND Anaemia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality for children in Africa. The plasma protein haptoglobin (Hp) binds avidly to free haemoglobin released following malaria-induced haemolysis. Haptoglobin polymorphisms result in proteins with altered haemoglobin-binding capacity and different antioxidant, iron-recycling, and immune functions. Previous studies examined the importance o...

BACKGROUND Early diagnosis of initial metabolic derangements in young obese children could influence their management; however, this impairment is frequently not overt, but subtle and undetectable by routinely used clinical assays. Our aim was to evaluate the ability of serum proteomic analysis to detect these incipient metabolic alterations in comparison to standard clinical methods and to ide...

Eleven patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) chronically infected with mucoid P. aeruginosa and ten patients without P. aeruginosa infection were examined for occurrence of circulating immune complexes, for immune complex deposits in the dermo-epidermal junction of the skin and for precipitins against P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, H. influenzae and D. pneumoniae antigens. The serum concentrations of h...

In this study, the association between Eimeria spp. related signs and innate immune response in dairy calves was examined. Calves (n=100) aged 15-60 days were clinically examined and faecal samples, blood samples and deep nasopharyngeal swabs obtained. The samples were analysed for intestinal pathogens, acute phase proteins and WBC count, and respiratory tract pathogens, respectively. Diarrhoea...

Anaphylactic transfusion reactions are rare complications of blood transfusions. Anhaptoglobinemia, a condition that has high incidence in Asia, can cause allergic transfusion reactions or anaphylaxis in severe cases. A 50-yr-old Korean woman was diagnosed with relapsed acute promyelocytic leukemia. She developed thrombocytopenia during chemotherapy and an anaphylactic transfusion reaction on t...

The first report of the existence of the plasma proteins now known as ‘ haptoglobins ’ was made by Polonovski & Jayle (1938). In subsequent studies by Jayle and his co-workers it was demonstrated that haptoglobin, which combines specifically and stoichiometrically with haemoglobin, belongs to the ct2 fraction of blood and is a glycoprotein of molecular weight approximately 155,000 (Guinand, Ton...

Aberrant fucosylation plays a functional role in regulating ontogeny and celluar differentiation and are differentially regulated in cancerous condition, which could provide hallmarks for cancer diagnostics and surveillance. We previously developed a magnetic beads-based lectin ELISA system to measure fucosylated haptoglobin (Hp), which has been reported to be a cancer biomarker through a serie...