Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:1.16.3.1 (ceruloplasmin)
 5,074 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The study was designed to examine the teratogenic potential of copper releasing intrauterine contraceptive devices IUD's on the developing embryo. the pregnancy rate with copper-bearing IUD's in situ has been reported as less than 5% per annum. 18 healthy fertile women aged 20-40 were studied. 11 conceived while using a copper-bearing IUD (Nova-T in 5 and Multiload in 6 cases); 7 women served as controls who conceived spontaneously with no previous history of using an IUD. Between 7 and 12 weeks of gestation an artificial abortion was induced in all 18 women. All 18 embryos were removed in toto, without injury. After fixation in neutral formalin the embedding process was carried out in paraffin and sectioning was performed, enabling examination of the brains, eyes, inner ear, heart and lungs, liver, pancreas, mesonephron, kidneys gonads vertebrae and limbs. All sections were stained for copper in accordance with Uzman's procedure. 2 mice were injected with a copper solution to verify the accuracy of the staining method. Maternal blood samples were taken on the day of the abortion and examined for plasma levels of copper and ceruloplasmin. The procedure of Dawson et al. was applied to determine the copper level and Richterich's for assessment of ceruloplasmin. The plasma levels of the copper and ceruloplasmin were within normal range, with no significant difference between the study and control groups (163.4+-41.4 va 137.8+- 37.0% mcg copper and 70.4+-14.9. vs 69+-19.9% mg ceruloplasmin). No organic malformations were found in either groups and the embryonic tissue was free of copper deposits. There was no structural impairment and no trace of copper deposits in the placentae when examined histologically however, traces of copper were found in the organs of mice. These results do not prove unequivocally that embryos exposed to copper contamination because of in site IUD are free of terato-genic risk, since the size of the study sample was small.
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PMID:Development of human embryos in the presence of a copper intrauterine device. 235 94

This study covers patients seen at a Wilson disease clinic between 1960 and 2002. The diagnosis of Wilson disease was confirmed in 316. Of 40 patients with a neurological presentation who were found not to have the disease, caeruloplasmin concentration was found to be reduced in 19. These 19 patients comprised 17 men and 2 women. The various diagnoses included Huntington's disease, multiple sclerosis, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), Hallervorden Spatz syndrome, and acaeruloplasminemia; in 9 no definite diagnosis was made. In view of the marked male preponderance, the lower limit of caeruloplasmin is calculated as for males. In an earlier study this was found to be 33.3 mg/dl (standard deviation, 6.1 mg/dl); therefore, 21.1 mg/dl is taken as the lower limit of normal. Particular attention is paid to 3 patients, 2 of whom had zero concentrations of caeruloplasmin and 1 had a very low level of the protein. Only 1 of these patients conformed to the classical picture of acaeruloplasminemia. The significance of a low caeruloplasmin concentration in patients with a variety of neurological syndromes is not clear but can lead to diagnostic confusion. When the concentration of this protein is very low or absent the diagnosis of acaeruloplasminemia must be considered.
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PMID:Diagnostic significance of reduced serum caeruloplasmin concentration in neurological disease. 1609 17