Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.1.21 (thymidine kinase)
 7,561 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Groups of well-fed adult male rats were either killed at the start of the experiment (initial controls) or injected (i.p.) daily for 8 days with DL-ethionine (700 mg/kg) while being fed a protein-free diet to achieve degeneration of the exocrine pancreas. Some animals were killed on the ninth day (degeneration group) while others were fed a commercial rat-chow pellet containing 24% protein for the next 7 days (regeneration period), during which period they were infused subcutaneously (osmotic minipump) with either saline or CCK-8 (300 ng or 600 ng/kg/h). These animals were then killed. Pancreata from all groups were assayed for various parameters of growth as well as for trypsin and chymotrypsin activities. At the end of the degeneration period, pancreatic weight and DNA and protein content of the pancreas (expressed as mg/100 g body weight) were significantly decreased by 62, 47, and 80%, respectively, when compared with the corresponding controls. Pancreatic thymidine kinase (TK), trypsin, and chymotrypsin activities were also found to be significantly lower in the degeneration group than in the initial controls. Regeneration of the pancreas (end of the 7-day experimental period) in the saline-infused group was associated with a significant increment in pancreatic weight, protein content, and the activity of trypsin and chymotrypsin in the pancreas, without affecting DNA content and TK activity when compared with the degeneration group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Pancreas 1987
PMID:Acceleration of pancreatic regeneration by cholecystokinin in rats. 362 24

Pancreatic cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Most patients have obvious metastases or locally advanced disease at the time of presentation. Surgical resection does not significantly change the clinical outcome. Combination chemotherapy induces a partial response but overall survival remains low. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of adenovirus-mediated suicide gene transduction as a therapeutic approach for pancreatic cancer. A cell line was established from a murine pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and intrahepatic tumors were generated by inoculation of pancreatic cancer cells into the left lateral liver lobe. Transduction efficiency was characterized in vitro and in vivo. Intrahepatic tumors were treated by intratumoral adenovirus injection in combination with intraperitoneal administration of ganciclovir. Adenovirus-mediated herpes simplex virus (HSV)-thymidine kinase (tk) gene expression followed by ganciclovir treatment was highly efficient in inhibiting pancreatic cancer cell proliferation in vitro. The proliferation of nontransduced cells was significantly reduced in the presence of HSV-tk expressing cells. Intrahepatic inoculation of pancreatic cancer cells leads to successful formation of solid adenocarcinomas in syngeneic recipients. Ad.RSV-tk injection of the tumor followed by intraperitoneal ganciclovir application caused highly significant tumor volume reduction and necrosis. These results indicate that transduction of the HSV-tk gene followed by ganciclovir is highly efficient for growth inhibition of hepatic metastases of pancreatic carcinoma.
Pancreas 1997 Jul
PMID:Adenoviral-mediated herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene transfer: regression of hepatic metastasis of pancreatic tumors. 921 89