Studies on blood factors responsible for rise in ESR

Rise in ESR following inflammation processes is well known. However, the exact factors in blood responsible for the rise remain largely unknown. The present experimental work on mixing of plasma from pulmonary tuberculosis cases with RBCs from healthy volunteers indicates that ESR rising properties reside in plasma and not in RBCs. Levels of C-reactive proteins (CRP) are also known to rise following inflammation and hence CRP could contribute to rise in ESR. However, absorption of C-reactive protein from the plasma does not reduce the ESR and suggests that C-reactive proteins are not directly involved in raising ESR. Further experimental work was carried out to see whether cytokines released by mononuclear cells are responsible. However, cell culture supernatants added to whole blood samples did not cause rise in ESR. The ESR rising substances in plasma were non-dialysable and thus were of larger molecular weight.