CD163 is a membrane protein and member of the group B Scavenger Receptor Cysteine-rich super family specifically expressed on peripheral blood monocytes and macrophages
A particularly high expression is seen in macrophages of the 'alternative activation' phenotype playing a major role in dampening the inflammatory response and in scavenging components of damaged cells.
CD163 functions as the receptor for haptoglobin-hemoglobin complexes, and furthermore CD163 is involved in the regulation of inflammation.
Importantly, the extracellular part of CD163 is cleaved from the cell-membrane by proteolytic activity upon toll-like receptor activation.
This shed CD163 molecule (soluble CD163, sCD163) is detectable in body fluid compartments and is regarded to reflect activation and proliferation of macrophages in inflammatory conditions.
Measurement of sCD163 may be a valuable marker in diseases with macrophage and/or monocyte involvement, such as macrophage activation syndromes (eg, hemophagocytic syndrome), infections, liver disease, auto-immune disease, atherosclerosis and cancer.
This Macro163 kit is intended for the quantification of soluble CD163 in serum samples and for research purposes only.
The assay has been validated for serum measurements, however the assay can be applied to other biological fluids (synovial fluid, ascites fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, cell-supernatants etc, with adjustments in sample dilutions).
