Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.2.1.23 (beta-galactosidase)
 14,648 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The impact of hyperthyroidism on epididymal glycosidases was studied in albino rats. Hyperthyroidism was induced in Wistar rats aged 30 days by daily injection of T4 (25 microg/100 g body weight/day intramuscularly) for 30 or 60 days; control rats were injected with vehicle (alkaline saline, pH 7.8). One set of hyperthyroid rats was reverted to euthyroid status by withdrawing T4 treatment after 30 days of hyperthyroidism. To asses the direct effect of thyroid hormone on epididymal hexosaminidases, caput, corpus and cauda tissues were stimulated with 25, 50 or 100 ng/mL T3 for 24 h, after an initial culture of 24 h. The activity of beta-glucosidase decreased in caput, corpus and cauda epididymis of hyperthyroid rats. beta-Galactosidase activity increased in the caput epididymis irrespective of the duration of hyperthyroidism. While a similar decrease occurred in the corpus and cauda epididymis in the 30 day hyperthyroid group, an opposite trend was observed in 60 day hyperthyroid rats. Caput beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase activities increased at both time points, whereas activity decreased in the corpus and cauda in 30 day, but increased in 60 day hyperthyroid rats. Hyperthyroidism consistently increased caput and corpus beta-N-acetylgalactosaminidase activity irrespective of the duration. Cauda epididymal beta-N-acetylgalactosaminidase activity was decreased in 30 day and increased in 60 day hyperthyroid rats. Hyperthyroidism induced changes in caput beta-galactosidase, beta-N-acetylgalactosaminidases, corpus beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase and cauda beta-N-acetylgalactosaminidase which were irreversible while the remaining actvities were brought back to normal when T4 treatment was withdrawn. In vitro studies showed that T3 stimulates epididymal hexosaminidases (beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase and beta-N-acetylgalactosaminidase) irrespective of the dose. These data suggest that thyroid hormones have a specific and direct influence on glycosidases in specific regions of the epididymis.
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PMID:Differential effect of hyperthyroidism on rat epididymal glycosidases. 1145 72

Thyroid hormone (T3) is essential for brain development and most of its actions are exerted at the gene expression level after interaction with nuclear receptors. In particular, genes encoding cytoskeletal proteins are influenced by the thyroidal status. Thyroid hormone is involved in the normal downregulation of the Talpha1 alpha-tubulin gene during postnatal growth. The action of T3 on Talpha1 tubulin expression is complex and is exerted at least at two levels. In cultured cells, T3 induces a transient and fast decrease of Talpha1 mRNA concentration. This effect is enhanced when transcription is blocked by actinomycin D, suggesting that T3 increases mRNA degradation. In transgenic animals T3 affects the expression of beta-galactosidase under control of the Talpha1 promoter in the same way as the endogenous gene, supporting an effect mediated through the Talpha1 promoter. However, the Talpha1 promoter is not regulated by T3 in transfected cells and, therefore, the effects of the hormone in vivo are likely to be indirect. It is concluded that regulation of Talpha1 alpha-tubulin by thyroid hormone is the result of multiple influences including effects on mRNA half life and indirect effects at the promoter level.
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PMID:Thyroid hormone-dependent regulation of Talpha1 alpha-tubulin during brain development. 1190 7

Over the last few years, increasing evidence has become available that some chemicals may have thyroid hormone- disrupting potencies. The effects exerted via thyroid hormone receptors (TR) have not been studied thoroughly. The present study investigates chemical thyroid hormone disruption at the level of TR functioning. To this end the (ant)agonistic action of a series of xenobiotics was tested in the newly developed yeast two-hybrid assay. This assay makes use of recombined TRbeta gene and reporter gene yeast, which specifically expresses beta-galactosidase when incubated with exogenous 3,3',5-triiodo-l-thyronine (T(3)). Agonistic and antagonistic actions were studied in the absence and presence of 5 x 10(-6) mol/L T(3), which induced maximal beta-galactosidase activity. The compounds tested included the specific TR-antagonist amiodarone, as well as a series of phenols, phthalate, organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polyhalogenated aromatic hydrocarbons (PHAHs) with structural similarity to T(3), and 3,3',5,5'-tetraiodo-l-thyronine (T(4)). The results obtained reveal that only 2-t-butylphenol and 2-isopropylphenol are specific agonists. Interestingly, some compounds showed potentiated antagonistic effects when tested in combination with T(3), which suggests that TR-mediated transcription may be disrupted in vivo. The 20% relative inhibitory concentration (RIC20) values of phenols, ester and OCPs were more than 10(-7) mol/L, but the values for PHAHs with metabolization were lower than 5 x 10(-7) g/L. These results suggest that PHAHs pose a serious threat to the human thyroid system. Altogether the results of the present study show that the newly developed, yeast two-hybrid assay can be used as a valuable tool for identification and quantification of compounds active in disturbing thyroid hormone homeostasis at the level of TR. The results are further evidence of thyroid-related effects of environmentally relevant PHAHs.
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PMID:A two-hybrid yeast assay to quantify the effects of xenobiotics on thyroid hormone-mediated gene expression. 1809 57

Endocrine disruptors refer to chemical compounds in the environment which interfere with the endocrine systems of organisms. Among them, environmental estrogens pose serious problems to aquatic organisms, in particular fish. It is therefore important and necessary to have a fast and low-cost system to screen the large number of different chemical compounds in the aquatic environment for their potential endocrine disrupting actions. In this study, a screening platform was developed to detect xenoestrogens in the aquatic environment using the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, and applied for compound screening. The aim was to demonstrate any significant potential differences between the fish screening system and the human screening system. To this end, a yeast expression vector harboring a fish estrogen receptor alpha and a reporter vector containing the estrogen responsive element fused with the Escherichia coli LacZ gene were constructed. After transformation with these two vectors, the transformed yeast clones were confirmed by Western blotting and selected on the basis of the beta-galactosidase activity. In this transgenic yeast system, the natural estrogen (estradiol) and other known xenoestrogens such as diethylstilbestrol, bisphenol A, genistein and dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane exhibited dose-dependent activities. Using this system, more than 40 putative endocrine disruptors including phytoestrogens, pesticides, herbicides, industrial dyes and other industrial chemicals were screened. Ten of them were demonstrated to exhibit estrogenic actions. Industrial dyes such as malachite green (MG) that disrupt thyroid hormone synthesis are extensively used and are widely distributed in the aquatic environment. Using this system, MG did not show any estrogenic action, but was demonstrated to exhibit anti-estrogenic activity.
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PMID:Establishment of a transgenic yeast screening system for estrogenicity and identification of the anti-estrogenic activity of malachite green. 1898 Feb 45


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