LIPOPOLYSACCHARIDE-BINDING PROTEIN: MAIN FUNCTIONS AND CLINICAL VALUE
Lipopolysaccharide-binding protein is constitutively present in blood of a healthy person, it is synthesized chiefly by hepatocytes. The key function of lipopolysaccharide-binding protein is to detect, bind and sequentially present bacterial endotoxin to geneticallyencoded receptors which are present on leukocytes and other cells, and that provide increased sensitivity of receptors to pathogen and amplification of signal of infection risk. Lipopolysaccharide-binding protein is able to detect molecular structures of gram-negative and gram-positive microorganisms and fungal pathogens. Current literature data provide evidence on the use of lipopolysaccharide-binding protein as a diagnostic biomarker of endotoxemia associated with local and severe infections in cardiac surgery patients. The article emphasizes its advantage compared to more commonly used markers of infection. However, the existing literature provides limited amount of research data on the clinical value of lipopolysaccharide-binding protein.