ABSTRACT
Secondary amyloidosis or AA amyloidosis is the most common form of amyloidosis worldwide. It occurs secondary to chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohns disease, Familial Mediterranean Fever or as a result of chronic infection. This chapter investigates the possible connection between inflammatory responding cells and the high concentration of circulating Serum Amyloid A (SAA) in acute-phase inflammation. It shows that SAA is cabable of inducing cytokine production in human mast cells (HMC-1) and that this induction might be mediated through a G-protein coupled pathway. HMC-1 were cultured in the presence of recombinant human apoSAA. Cytokine concentrations in the cell culture supernatant after 24 hours were determined by ELISA. The results of the present study show that SAA can induce significant production of cytokines in human mast cells, and that the native form of SAA is required for this induction.
