Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.6.1.1 (aspartate aminotransferase)
 21,665 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Twenty-nine patients with active rheumatoid arthritis receiving long-term oral weekly methotrexate (MTX) therapy were studied to determine the extent of their hepatic architectural changes. Liver biopsies (n = 101) were performed in all patients before the initiation of MTX therapy, after 2 years, and annually thereafter (mean duration of therapy 53 months). The hepatic histologic grade (5-point scale) in 25 patients increased (worsened) (mean +/- SEM change 0.84 +/- 1.02; P = 0.001). Fibrosis, confirmed by trichrome staining, developed in 14 of 27 patients (52%). A history of alcohol consumption prior to starting MTX correlated significantly with subsequent worsening of the liver biopsy grade (r = 0.55, P = 0.0054). Alcohol intake prior to study entry, elevated weight at MTX initiation, and dose and duration of MTX were significantly associated with the development of fibrosis. Elevations in serum aspartate aminotransferase levels at 29-53 months of therapy correlated with the increase in hepatic histologic grade at the 3-year biopsy (r = 0.50, P = 0.04) and 4-year biopsy (r = 0.58, P = 0.03). We conclude that long-term MTX therapy in rheumatoid arthritis patients results in a statistically significant worsening in hepatic histologic grade, with common development of mild fibrosis. We do not consider these changes to be clinically significant at present.
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PMID:Liver histology in rheumatoid arthritis patients receiving long-term methotrexate therapy. A prospective study with baseline and sequential biopsy samples. 292 47

Serum activity of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) was serially measured in 47 hospitalized chronic alcoholics with liver disease. Compared to healthy controls, ACE activity, on admission, in the serum of alcoholics was significantly elevated (42.5 +/- 16.6 U/ml vs. 32.4 +/- 9.6 U/ml; p less than 0.005). About 36% of the patients had an elevated ACE level exceeding an upper normal value of 42 U/ml (mean +/- SD). In contrast to the rapid normalization of such enzymes as aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT) and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) which represent parenchymal liver cell injury, the activity of ACE remained elevated over a period of 4 weeks even with abstinence. The serum level of ACE was significantly correlated with levels of alkaline phosphatase, gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase and monoamine oxidase, but not with those of AST, ALT and LDH. These data suggest increased ACE activity in alcoholics may be related to the influence of chronic consumption of alcohol on hepatic nonparenchymal systems.
Alcohol
PMID:Mild but prolonged elevation of serum angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) activity in alcoholics. 302 46

Experiments were conducted to determine the hepatic damage of cocaine in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and normotensive Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats in terms of serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT) activity, liver weight/body weight ratio and hepatic microsomal enzyme activity, i.e., N-demethylase activity or UDP-glucuronyltransferase (GT) activity. In subacute experiments, 2, 4 and 10 daily cocaine treatments elevated the level of SGOT activity and reduced the liver weight/body weight ratio in SHR rats. The ethylmorphine N-demethylase activity and the cocaine N-demethylase activity in SHR rats were significantly greater (31% and 26%, respectively) than those in WKY rats. Ten daily treatments with cocaine diminished the ethyl morphine N-demethylase activity and the cocaine N-demethylase activity in SHR and WKY rats. However, attenuation of 4-nitrophenol GT activity was only observed in SHR rats. In acute experiments, a single dose of cocaine, 40 mg/kg, elevated the SGOT activity in SHR rats and reduced the 4-nitrophenol GT activity in SHR rats, but it did not affect the activities of SGOT and 4-nitrophenol GT in WKY rats. A higher dose of cocaine, 60 mg/kg, elevated the SGOT activity and reduced cocaine N-demethylase activity and 4-nitrophenol GT activity in both SHR and WKY rats. The present studies suggest that N-demethylation of cocaine plays an important role in the hepatotoxicity of cocaine in animals.
Alcohol Drug Res 1987
PMID:Sensitivity difference to hepatotoxicity of cocaine in spontaneously hypertensive and Wistar Kyoto rats. 311 43

This study examines the hypothesis that there may be a clinically important association between alcohol intake and stroke. Alcohol consumption and the haematological and biochemical markers of alcohol intake were studied in hospital admissions for stroke and compared with community based control subjects from an occupational screening survey. In males, moderate to heavy alcohol consumption (greater than 30 units per week) was associated with an increased relative risk of stroke. Light drinking (less than 30 units per week) was associated with reduced relative risk when compared to teetotallers. The relative risk of stroke in moderate and heavy consumers of alcohol compared with teetotallers was elevated 1.8 times. Similar patterns of risk were present for increasing levels of aspartate transaminase and uric acid. Relative risk was increased for all levels of gamma-glutamyl transferase above the lowest. There was a decrease in relative risk associated with increasing levels of mean erythrocyte cell volume though this did not achieve statistical significance. There were few heavy drinkers among the female cases or controls. We conclude that high alcohol intake may be a significant preventable risk factor particularly among male strokes.
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PMID:A community case-control study of alcohol consumption in stroke. 320 34

An unresolved controversy is whether exposure to organic solvents in the workplace causes hepatotoxicity. From a medical surveillance study of 289 printing factory employees who were exposed primarily to toluene, we identified eight workers who had persistently abnormal serum transaminase and/or alkaline phosphatase values. The eight men were generally healthy and gave no history of taking medications or of drinking ethanol to excess. None was obese or diabetic. Six patients had hepatomegaly based on physical examination. All eight had mild elevations (less than 2 to 3 times the upper value of normal) of serum transaminases [alanine (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST)]. However, there was a marked increase in the ratio of ALT/AST (mean = 1.61). In each case, liver biopsy revealed mild, pericentral fatty change. Our results, consistent with those previously published by some others, suggest that pericentral fatty liver with mild "reactive hepatitis" is the most likely diagnosis in workers exposed to solvents for whom common causes of mild liver test abnormalities have been excluded. An increased ALT/AST ratio may represent a convenient, previously unrecognized indicator of this condition.
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PMID:Liver structure and function in print workers exposed to toluene. 261 34

Male guinea pigs were maintained on a vitamin C-deficient chow diet and supplemented with either 0.05 or 2.0 mg of ascorbic acid/ml drinking water for 3 weeks prior to receiving an intraperitoneal injection of 4.0 g of ethanol/kg body weight. The following biochemical parameters were measured prior to, and hourly for 12 hours after, ethanol administration: serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamic-pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), serum triglycerides, and blood ethanol clearance. The animals were killed 12 hours after ethanol administration and liver weight to body weight ratios and hepatic ascorbic acid concentrations determined. Acute ethanol administration resulted in a 12-fold increase in SGOT levels in animals with hepatic ascorbic acid concentrations at or below 16 mg/100 g of liver. A marked reduction, 60%, in this increase was observed in animals that had concentrations of hepatic ascorbic acid above 16 mg/100 g of liver. No effect of hepatic ascorbic acid concentration was observed on elevated levels of SGPT, serum triglycerides, or blood ethanol clearance.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res 1987 Jun
PMID:Ascorbic acid and elevated SGOT levels after an acute dose of ethanol in the guinea pig. 330 91

Alcoholic subjects (453) were randomly assigned to disulfiram or placebo therapy and followed for up to 12 months for drinking. Drinking status was determined from interviews of the subject and a household contact each 2 months and from the analysis of eight blood samples or 39 urines submitted at intervals during the year. Liver status was monitored each 2 months by obtaining serum alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin, and AST. Sensitive criteria were arbitrarily selected to identify about 1/5 of the patients with episodic elevations of liver tests. There was no relationship of liver test elevations to disulfiram treatment. However, the elevated AST related significantly to drinking status (p = 0.004) as did elevated bilirubin (p = 0.044), but not elevated alkaline phosphatase (p = 0.146). Two hundred one patients had liver test elevations at least one time and were continued on drug, four were dropped. One hundred seventy-nine of these patients were drinking, 22 were abstinent, and four were indeterminant. It is concluded that patients on disulfiram with minor liver test abnormalities are usually drinking.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res 1987 Jun
PMID:Liver toxicity encountered in the Veterans Administration trial of disulfiram in alcoholics. 330 98

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of short-term social drinking on hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication as measured by serum levels of hepatitis B virus DNA (HBV-DNA). We studied five male carriers of hepatitis B e antigen who were social drinkers. Levels of HBV-DNA, blood alcohol, and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were measured during abstinence from alcohol, before and during a test dose (29.8 g) of alcohol which followed one week of abstinence, and before and during the same test dose which followed social drinking for one week. We observed no significant changes in HBV-DNA or AST levels. These data suggest that a single one-week period of social drinking in patients with chronic HBV infection does not cause enhanced viral replication. The risks of repeated ingestion of moderate amounts of alcohol by such patients have not been established. Interpretation of our data is limited by the small number of subjects, and further studies are needed. Nevertheless, our results are consistent with published recommendations that social drinking by nonalcoholic HBV carriers should be restricted but need not be totally forbidden.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res 1987 Dec
PMID:A preliminary study of hepatitis B virus replication during short-term (7-day) social drinking. 332 8

The ability of trichloroethylene (TCE) and selected metabolites to induce single-strand breaks in hepatic DNA of male B6C3F1 mice and Sprague-Dawley rats in vivo was evaluated using an alkaline unwinding assay. Doses of TCE of 22-30 mmol/kg were required to produce strand breaks in DNA in rats, whereas a dose of 11.4 mmol/kg was sufficient to increase the rate of alkaline unwinding in mice. To assess the importance of TCE metabolism to this response, rats were subjected to pretreatments of ethanol, phenobarbital, TCE, or the appropriate vehicle for 4 days prior to challenge doses of TCE. Phenobarbital and TCE, but not ethanol pretreatments, reduced the dose of TCE required to produce significant increases in single-strand breaks. In another series of experiments, mice and rats were treated with metabolites of TCE. Trichloroacetate, dichloroacetate, and chloral hydrate induced strand breaks in hepatic DNA in a dose-dependent manner in both species. Strand breaks in DNA were observed at doses that produced no observable hepatotoxic effects as measured by serum aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase levels. The slopes of the dose-response curves and the order of potency of these metabolites differed significantly between rats and mice, suggesting that different mechanisms of single-strand break induction may be involved in the two species. These data provide a potential explanation for the different sensitivity of mice and rats to the hepatocarcinogenic effects of TCE.
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PMID:Induction of strand breaks in DNA by trichloroethylene and metabolites in rat and mouse liver in vivo. 337 13

727 consecutive drunken drivers were studied for laboratory markers of excessive alcohol consumption. Serum gamma-glutamyltransferase and alanine aminotransferase showed no differences and aspartate aminotransferase and blood alcohol concentration only small differences between groups of first and repeating drunk driving offenders. The best laboratory test to differentiate the repeating offenders with probably more serious alcohol problems from the first offenders was in our material serum acetate, the mean serum acetate level of the repeating offenders being highly significantly (P less than 0.001) higher than that of the first offenders or nonalcoholic controls. Serum acetate also differentiated first offenders from nonalcoholic controls (P less than 0.001). Our results suggest that serum acetate could be used for the screening of problem drinking among drunken drivers.
Alcohol Alcohol 1988
PMID:Increased serum acetate as a marker of problem drinking among drunken drivers. 339 Feb 36


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