Procalcitonin: how a hormone became a marker and mediator of sepsis.

B Müller, K L Becker

Journal: Swiss medical weekly 2002;131(41-42):595-602

PMID: 11820070

Free Full Text on SMW supporting association (Trägerverein Swiss Medical Weekly SMW) View on PubMed

Abstract

Calcitonin was discovered in the early 1960s [1], at which time it was assumed to be a single hormone with a yet-to-be-determined role in human physiology. Since then it has been found to be only one entity among a large array of related circulating peptides, at least one of which has a pivotal role in the host response to microbial infections [2, 3]. The aim of this review is to describe this metamorphosis of an endocrine hormone to a new class of hormokine mediators in infectious diseases.

Address: Division of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Clinical Nutrition, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospitals, Basel, Switzerland. [email protected]

DOI: 10.4414/smw.2001.09751

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Free resources

Full Text Sources:

https://doi.org/10.4414/smw.2001.09751

Medical:

https://medlineplus.gov/sepsis.html

MeSH Terms: Biomarkers, Calcitonin, Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide, Humans, Practice Guidelines as Topic, Protein Precursors, Sensitivity and Specificity, Sepsis