THE ACUTE-PHASE RESPONSE

In contrast to the local effects of inflammation described earlier, the acute-phase response is a rapid, systemic increase in various plasma proteins in response to innate inflammation.Upon binding, these host proteins can enhance complement activation (see Chapter 63) and phagocytosis (i.e..Finally, many acute-phase proteins increase the migration of new neutrophils and other leukocytes from the bone marrow and enhance their homing, phagocytic, and microbicidal functions.