What acute metabolic condition can be defined by the elevation of a yellow compound that occurs in normal catabolic pathway that breaks down heme in vertebrates?
Bilirubin Bilirubin (formerly referred to as haematoidin and discovered by Rudolf Virchow in 1847) is a yellow compound that occurs in the normal catabolic pathway that breaks down heme in vertebrates. This catabolism is a necessary process in the body's clearance of waste products that arise from the destruction of aged red blood cells. First the hemoglobin gets stripped of the heme molecule which thereafter passes through various processes of porphyrin catabolism, depending on the part of the body in which the breakdown occurs. For example, the molecules excreted in the urine differ from those in the faeces. The production of biliverdin from heme is the first major step in the catabolic pathway, after which the enzyme biliverdin reductase performs the second step, producing bilirubin from biliverdin.
Hemopexin Hemopexin (or haemopexin; HPX), also known as beta-1B-glycoprotein is a protein that in humans is encoded by the "HPX" gene and belongs to hemopexin family of proteins. Hemoglobin and its scavenger protein hemopexin (Hx) associate with HDL and influence the inflammatory properties of HDL. In addition it can also be said that HDL from Hx-null mice is proinflammatory. Moreover, Hemopexin deficiency is associated with various other inflammatory diseases such as septic shock and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.