Pentraxins as a key component of innate immunity

✍ Scribed by Barbara Bottazzi; Cecilia Garlanda; Giovanni Salvatori; Pascale Jeannin; Angelo Manfredi; Alberto Mantovani

• Book ID: 104014454
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 204 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-7915
• DOI: 10.1016/j.coi.2005.11.009

✦ Synopsis

Pentraxins are a complex superfamily of multifunctional molecules characterized by a multimeric structure. C-reactive protein and pentraxin 3 (PTX3) are prototypic molecules of the short and long pentraxin family, respectively. PTX3 is conserved in evolution and produced by innate immune cells. Evidence suggests that PTX3 acts as a non-redundant component of the humoral arm of innate immunity, downstream of, and complementary to, cellular recognition, as well as a tuner of inflammation.