Serum Alpha 1‐Acid Glycoprotein Concentrations in Healthy and Tumor‐Bearing Cats

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate alpha 1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) concentrations in tumor-bearing and healthy cats. The hypothesis of the present study was that AGP concentrations would be significantly increased in tumor-bearing cats. Serum from 51 healthy and 97 tumor-bearing, client-owned cats was harvested at the time of presentation and stored at -80 degrees C until assayed. Cats with measurable, histologically confirmed malignancies, and healthy cats of similar ages were included. Serum was assayed for AGP concentration by using a radial immunodiffusion method. AGP concentrations were significantly (P = .0051) higher in tumor-bearing (763 +/- 595 microg/mL; mean +/- SD) when compared to healthy cats (501 +/- 377 microg/mL; mean +/- SD). Of the tumor-bearing cats, 35 had carcinomas, 33 had sarcomas, and 26 had discrete, round cell tumors. AGP concentrations were 645 +/- 62 microg/mL, 660 +/- 540 microg/mL, and 967 +/- 860 microg/mL, respectively, and there were no significant differences among the groups.

Evaluation of a Commercially Available Human Serum Amyloid A (SAA) Turbidimetric Immunoassay for Determination of Feline SAA Concentration

“…Furthermore, the differences appeared to be of a magnitude that would make the observed imprecision and detection limit acceptable for clinical use. The cut-off value for AGP used to differentiate between cats with and without an acutephase response was established independently of the present study (upper 95% confidence limit (Solberg, 1996) of the AGP levels in healthy cats; data including 51 healthy cats in which the AGP serum concentration was measured using the same method as in the present study (Selting et al, 2000)). The previously reported kinetic differences between SAA and AGP (Kajikawa et al, 1999) could cause minor uncertainties regarding the parallel presence of both proteins during an acute-phase response, but the effect was considered to be negligible in the present study.…”

“…In detail: (A) The individual cat was categorized according to serum concentration of AGP, with a high concentration indicating the presence of an acute-phase response (Kajikawa et al, 1999). A cut-off value of 0.65 g/L was used (based on data reported by Selting et al, 2000). (B) All cats were assigned retrospectively to five different diagnostic groups according to the final diagnosis of the attending clinician, with regard to clinical, haematological, clinical biochemical and pathological findings, i.e.…”

The feline acute phase reaction

“…In the cat, AGP increases with spontaneous or experimentally induced inflammation (Kajikawa et al, 1999). It can also increase in cats with neoplasms (Selting et al, 2000), particularly lymphoma (Correa et al, 2001) although the intensity of AGP increases seems not to have a prognostic role, as has been found in dogs (Tecles et al, 2005).…”

Acute Phase Proteins in Animals

“…A mean increase of 1.5-fold AGP levels was reported in cats with various malignant tumors. 175 No significant differences were observed by tumor type which included carcinoma, sarcoma, and round cell tumors. Increased AGP was also consistent observed in cats with lymphoma.…”