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Acute phase reaction

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

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The acute phase reaction describes the global systemic physiological response to acute insults such as inflammation by:

  • fever
  • chills
  • lethargy
  • increased catabolism of protein
  • increase in slow wave sleep
  • decreased appetite
  • hypotension
  • neutrophilia
  • increase in acute phase proteins

The likely instigators of all of these effects are cytokines, most likely IL-1 and TNF. They are released by peripheral monocytes in direct relation to the level of inflammation, hypothetically to increase the level of acute phase proteins necessary for their activity.


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