Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.2.1.17 (lysozyme)
 21,489 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Staining of elastic fibres with antilysozyme antibodies has been noted previously. In this study, we examined the staining pattern of dermal elastic fibres in aging, solar elastosis, and lesional skin of pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) using an antibody to lysozyme and the indirect-peroxidase technique. To assess the effects of aging, sun-protected skin (buttock) from a younger and an older group of patients was used. Sun damage was studied in skin specimens from varying sun-exposed body regions (trunk; head and neck). No staining was seen in sun-protected skin from younger individuals, whereas sun-protected skin from older persons had scattered positive fibres. Solar elastotic material was intensely positive and the number of positive fibres appeared to correlate with the amount of sun damage. Abnormal elastic fibres in PXE also stained positively, but less intensely, than fibres in solar elastosis. This study shows that changes in the elastic fibres due to degenerative processes or genetic factors results in altered antigenic expression of the fibres. This may be an epiphenomenon secondary to changes in proteoglycans, which are known to occur with solar elastosis and PXE, or may represent an adaptive phenomenon to maintain the elastic properties of the altered fibres or to decrease their antigenicity.
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PMID:Lysozyme in abnormal dermal elastic fibers of cutaneous aging, solar elastosis and pseudoxanthoma elasticum. 185 46

Elastofibroma is a rare lesion characterized by the presence of abundant abnormal elastic fibers with a unique morphology, fibroblastic proliferation, and collagen deposition. Whether the altered morphology of the elastic fibers is a degenerative phenomenon or is due to abnormal elastogenesis is controversial. We studied fetal skin and three cases of elastofibroma by light microscopy and immunohistochemistry using an antibody to lysozyme, and one case of elastofibroma by electron microscopy (EM). Our previous studies have shown that normal elastic fibers in adult skin do not stain for lysozyme whereas abnormal elastic fibers in solar elastosis and pseudoxanthoma elasticum react positively for lysozyme. In the fetal skin and all three cases of elastofibroma the elastic fibers were negative for lysozyme. EM showed the abnormal flowerlike configuration of the elastic fibers, which consisted of a central core of normal or degenerating elastin surrounded by radiating spokes of granular and filamentous material of variable electron densities, suggesting that the structure and organization of the microfibrils is abnormal. The absence of lysozyme in the aberrant elastic did not differentiate whether there was excessive production of fetal or adult elastic. However, the excessive amount of microfibrils seen at the ultrastructural level suggests that there may be excessive fetal elastic production. The elastic fibers were intimately related to the fibroblasts and were often present within their caveolae, suggesting that the abnormal elastic fibers are produced by the fibroblast. Our study suggests that abnormal elastogenesis with subsequent degeneration plays a role in the production of the abnormal elastic fibers in elastofibroma.
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PMID:"Aberrant elastic" in elastofibroma: an immunohistochemical and ultrastructural study. 777 Sep 61