Acute phase reactants have less significant change during which condition?

• A. Acute infection
• B. Severe inflammation
• C. Acute injury
• D. Metabolic stress

Answer: (D)

Acute-phase reactants are produced by the liver in response to inflammatory signals, especially cytokines like IL-6. When there’s an acute infection or tissue injury, or a high level of inflammation, these cytokines surge and drive a strong rise in positive acute-phase reactants (for example CRP, ferritin, fibrinogen, haptoglobin).

Metabolic stress, on the other hand, doesn’t typically provoke a robust inflammatory cytokine response. Without that cytokine signal, the liver doesn’t upregulate acute-phase proteins to a significant degree, so these markers stay near baseline or change only minimally. That’s why metabolic stress shows the least change in acute-phase reactants compared with infection, inflammation, or injury.