Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound   Target Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound

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Query: EC:2.6.1.2 (alanine aminotransferase)
26,722 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We investigated the efficacy of a short course of prednisone therapy in 20 patients with histologic evidence of chronic active hepatitis B. Sixteen of 20 prednisone-treated patients who were initially serum hepatitis B virus DNA-positive had a transient elevation of their serum ALT activity on withdrawal of prednisone. Subsequently, 14 of these 16 patients (87.5%) became persistently negative for serum hepatitis B virus DNA, and 10 also lost their HBeAg. In addition, there was a significant fall in serum ALT levels and HBsAg titers up to 12 months of follow-up in the prednisone-treated group. Five of 20 (25%) prednisone-treated patients experienced a transient episode of hepatic decompensation coinciding with the peak of enzyme elevation. To contrast, only 3 of 15 (20%) initially hepatitis B virus DNA-positive matched untreated patients followed during the same time period became negative for serum hepatitis B virus DNA, and no significant changes in serum ALT values or HBsAg titers were noted over the 12-month study period. Thus, patients with chronic active hepatitis B appear to be responsive to immunologic manipulation with prednisone as indicated by a pronounced rebound immune response and clearance of hepatitis B virus DNA with improvement in liver disease activity.
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PMID:A pilot study on the effects of prednisone withdrawal on serum hepatitis B virus DNA and HBeAg in chronic active hepatitis B. 243 91

Elevated levels of serum enzymes are frequently associated not only with alcohol-related organ damage but also with excessive alcohol consumption and alcoholism without significant tissue injury. However, both in the early detection of alcoholism as well as also in the diagnosis of alcohol-related diseases the sensitivities and specificities of these enzyme markers vary considerably. They may be influenced by nonalcohol-related diseases, enzyme-inducing drugs, nutritional factors, metabolic disorders, age, smoking, etc. Consequently, we have neither a single laboratory test--enzyme marker--nor a test combination that is reliable enough for the exact diagnosis between alcohol- and nonalcohol-related organ damage. In most cases it is possible to determine the tissue from which the elevated enzyme is derived, but only occasionally enzyme changes reflect the quantity of the tissue injury. Gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) is the most widely used laboratory marker of alcoholism and heavy drinking, detecting 34-85% of problem drinkers and alcoholics. However, the unspecificity of increased serum GGT limits its use for general screening purposes. Its value in the follow-up of various treatment programs, however, is well established. An elevated level of serum aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT) and alanine aminotransferase (ALAT) in an alcoholic or a heavy consumer indicates alcohol-induced organ damage. The use of test combinations significantly improves the information received with single serum enzyme determinations. An ASAT/ALAT ratio greater than 1.5 can be considered as highly suggestive for the alcoholic etiology of the liver injury. Still better discrimination between alcoholic and nonalcoholic origin of the liver disease may be achieved by the determination of the ratio of GGT to alkaline phosphatase. If this ratio exceeds 1.4 the specificity of the finding in favor for alcoholic liver injury is 78%. The determination of the mitochondrial isoenzyme of ASAT also improves the diagnostic value of ASAT determination. The ratio of mitochondrial isoenzyme to total over 4 is highly suggestive for alcohol-related liver injury. In general, however, the determination of serum activities of other enzymes such as ornithine carbamyl transferase, lactate dehydrogenase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, sorbitol dehydrogenase, alcohol dehydrogenase, guanase, aldolase, alkaline phosphatase or glutathione S-transferase do not significantly improve the diagnostic information obtained with more conventional laboratory markers of liver injury.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:Use of enzymes for the diagnosis of alcohol-related organ damage. 243 6

Thyroid function tests were evaluated in 34 patients with acute viral hepatitis (AVH) and in 38 healthy controls (C). As expected, AVH patients displayed a significant increase in T4, rT3 and TBG serum levels with respect to C, while FT4 and TSH concentrations were similar. A positive correlation between TBG and T4 was evident in C, but not in AVH. In this group there was, instead, an inverse correlation between the sum of serum levels of GOT + GPT and T4 concentrations. When AVH patients were divided in "high necrosis" (HN, serum GOT + GPT greater than 2000 UI/l) and "low necrosis" (LN, serum GOT + GPT less than 2000 UI/ml) groups, we found a significant reduction in both T4 and T3 serum concentrations in HN with respect to LN, despite similar levels of TBG, albumin, FT4 and TSH. The hypothesis that thyroid-hormone binding inhibitors (THBI), released during severe liver cell injury, accounted for an impaired serum binding capacity in HN-AVH, was confirmed by the significant increase in FT4/T4 ratio and by the demonstration of THBI activity in pooled sera of these patients, with respect to LN subgroup. Our present finding may clarify the unexplained observation of reduced T4 levels in patients with fulminant hepatitis and the ominous prognostic significance of a "low T4 syndrome" in subjects with severe liver disease and/or other systemic illnesses.
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PMID:Thyroid function tests in acute viral hepatitis: relative reduction in serum thyroxine levels due to T4-TBG binding inhibitors in patients with severe liver cell necrosis. 249 20

An unusual clinical presentation of chronic active hepatitis is the abrupt onset of symptoms and jaundice, suggesting acute viral hepatitis. In this report, six patients had the acute onset of a severe liver disease. Five of the patients were female and ranged in age from 13 to 64 years. Marked elevations in the total bilirubin (17.1 +/- 11.4 mg/dl), AST (1,346 +/- 352 mIU/ml), and ALT (1,043 +/- 213 mIU/ml) were present (mean +/- SD). Negative serologies for hepatitis A and B were found. Liver histology showed severe hepatocellular injury. A diagnosis of autoimmune chronic active hepatitis with acute features was made on the basis of high titers of antinuclear antibody and smooth muscle antibody and the presence of hypergammaglobulinemia. As immunosuppressive therapy is a beneficial treatment of autoimmune chronic active hepatitis, an acute presentation of this liver disease should be considered as an alternative diagnosis to acute non-A, non-B hepatitis in patients with these clinical characteristics.
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PMID:Autoimmune chronic active hepatitis masquerading as acute hepatitis. 250 74

To evaluate the level of serum thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG) in various liver diseases, TBG and T4, T3, FT4 were measured by radioimmunoassay in 29 HBsAg carriers (C), 27 patients with acute hepatitis (AH), 18 patients with inactive chronic hepatitis, 70 patients with chronic active hepatitis (CAH), 31 patients with active cirrhosis (AC), 20 patients with inactive cirrhosis (IC), 38 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), 12 patients with metastatic Ca to the liver (Met.) and in 81 normal controls. All the patients were clinically euthyroid. The TBG as well as T4 in patients with AH, CAH, AC HCC and, Met. were significantly higher than those in controls. The T3 level was significantly elevated in CAH and AC patients. The TBG level did not correlate with serum albumin or bilirubin levels, but did correlate significantly with alanine transaminase (ALT) (r = 0.54, p less than 0.01). However, the correlation was positive in chronic active hepatitis (r = 0.40, p less than 0.01) but negative in hepatocellular carcinoma (r = -0.32, p less than 0.05). The data suggested: (1) Significant TBG and T4 elevation was found in all active liver diseases and HCC. (2) In the presence of high T4 in patients with liver disease, normal FT4 excluded the diagnosis of hyperthyroidism. (3) The elevation of TBG levels in chronic hepatitis appeared to parallel the severity of hepatocytolysis, and therefore might be the result of hepatocytolysis; while the elevation of TBG in HCC might be due to increased synthesis by the malignant cells.
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PMID:[Changes in thyroid hormone concentration in liver disease]. 250 36

Chronic hepatitis C (non-A, non-B hepatitis) is a common and often progressive viral liver disease. To assess the efficacy of therapy with the antiviral agent interferon alfa, we randomly assigned 166 patients with chronic hepatitis C to treatment with either 3 million or 1 million units of recombinant interferon alfa three times weekly for 24 weeks, or to no treatment. The probability of normalization or near normalization of the serum alanine aminotransferase levels after six months of interferon therapy was 46 percent in patients treated with 3 million units of interferon (P less than 0.001) and 28 percent in those treated with 1 million units (P less than 0.02), but only 8 percent in untreated patients. The serum alanine aminotransferase level became completely normal in 22 of the 26 patients (85 percent) who responded to treatment with 3 million units of interferon and 9 of the 16 patients (56 percent) who responded to treatment with 1 million units. The patients who received 3 million units of interferon had histologic improvement because of the regression of lobular and periportal inflammation. Relapse within six months after the completion of treatment occurred in 51 percent of the patients treated with 3 million units of interferon and 44 percent of those treated with 1 million units. We conclude that a 24-week course of interferon therapy is effective in controlling disease activity in many patients with hepatitis C, although relapse after the cessation of treatment is common.
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PMID:Treatment of chronic hepatitis C with recombinant interferon alfa. A multicenter randomized, controlled trial. 250 16

The effects of OKY-046, a selective thromboxane A2 (TXA2) synthetase inhibitor, and ONO-3708, a novel TXA2 receptor antagonist, on liver disease were investigated in mice. The liver injury was induced by either an injection of antibasic liver protein (BLP) antibody into DBA/2 mice that had been previously immunized with rabbit IgG or by an injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) into Corynebacterium parvum (C. parvum) pretreated DDY mice. 1) In both injury models, clear elevation of glutamate transaminase (GOT and GPT) activity due to extensive liver parenchymal cell damage was observed; this was confirmed by significant histopathological changes in the liver. 2) Typical histopathological changes in the liver were submassive hepatocellular necrosis in the anti-BLP antibody-induced injury model and focal necrosis in the LPS-induced model. Inflammation and increased cell infiltration in portal connective tissue were observed in both cases. 3) Administration of OKY-046 (50 mg/kg) and ONO-3708 (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mg/kg) suppressed the elevation of serum GOT and GPT levels and histopathological changes in both experimental liver injury models. 4) Indomethacin inhibited the development of liver disease caused by anti-BLP antibody but not by bacterial LPS. Prostaglandin I2 inhibited the elevation of serum GOT and GPT levels and histopathological changes of the liver in the mice treated with anti-BLP antibody and showed the tendency to inhibit the development of liver injury caused by bacterial LPS.
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PMID:Effect of OKY-046 and ONO-3708 on liver injury in mice. 251 4

In order to investigate the reason for the elevation of serum gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) after chronic alcohol consumption, the activity of this enzyme, together with the activities of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase in serum (parameters of liver cell damage) and the excretion of D-glucaric acid (D-GA) in urine (parameter of microsomal enzymatic induction) were determined in 72 chronic alcoholics. Of these, 32 had no significant liver disease (1st group) and 40 had an overt liver disease varying from fatty liver to liver cirrhosis (2nd group). The GGT was elevated in only 62% of the patients of the first group, but in 95% of the second group. Of the latter group, patients with cirrhosis had significantly higher GGT mean levels than the patients with fatty liver. On the other hand, increased D-GA excretion was only found in 23% of the group 1 patients and in 44% of the group 2 patients. Moreover, in all patients there was a significant correlation between the values of GGT and aspartate aminotransferase, but not between GGT and D-GA. From these results, the GGT increase in chronic alcoholics, would seem to be better related to cellular damage than to enzymatic induction assessed on the basis of D-GA urinary excretion.
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PMID:Abnormal serum gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase in alcoholics. Clues to its explanation. 256 72

The role of peptide leukotrienes (p-LTs), especially LTC4 and LTD4 in liver disease, was investigated in mice experimental liver injury models. The liver injury was induced by the injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) into Corynebacterium parvum pretreated mice. Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver injury in mice was used as a standard model. In both injury models, extensive liver parenchymal cell damage was observed by the elevation of glutamate transaminase (GOT and GPT) activity and confirmed by significant histopathological changes in the liver. Moreover, significant elevation of LTC4 in the liver was observed in both models 1 and 6 h after the onset of disease. Administration of AA-861, a selective 5-lipoxygenase inhibitor (0.5, 1, and 2 mg/kg) and LY-171883, a p-LT receptor antagonist (50 and 200 mg/kg) suppressed the elevation of serum GOT and GPT levels and histopathological changes in both experimental liver injury models. In addition, when authentic LTC4 or LTD4 was injected into the mouse, clear elevation of serum GOT and GPT and histopathological changes of the liver were observed. These results suggest that p-LTs play a role in the onset of liver diseases in mice.
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PMID:Role of peptide-leukotrienes in liver injury in mice. 257

Plasma methionine enkephalin is increased in liver disease and may contribute to some of the clinical manifestations of hepatic failure. To determine if another 'small' opioid peptide is increased in the plasma of patients with liver disease, leucine enkephalin was measured by radioimmunoassay. Its plasma concentration was raised approximately five-fold in patients with acute liver disease (median 1490 pmol/l, range 830-2420) and three-fold in patients with cirrhosis with ascites (960 pmol/l, 470-2900), compared with disease controls (325 pmol/l, 180-740) and healthy controls (305 pmol/l, 180-560). The increase in plasma leucine enkephalin was proportional to the degree of liver damage, as judged in the patients with acute liver disease by its correlation with the prothrombin time (r = 0.691, p less than 0.01) and alanine aminotransferase (r = 0.502, p less than 0.05), and in the patients with cirrhosis by its negative correlation with the plasma albumin (r = -0.743, p less than 0.001). It is unclear whether the raised plasma leucine enkephalin in liver disease is a consequence of diminished hepatic inactivation, increased secretion from sympathetic nerves and adrenal glands, or both.
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PMID:Plasma leucine enkephalin is increased in liver disease. 258 65


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