Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.2.1.31 (beta-glucuronidase)
 7,680 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A 76-year-old woman with acute leukemia responded incompletely to prednisone and vincristine. Cytochemistry of the blast cells demonstrated only focal alpha-naphthyl acetate and alpha-naphthyl butyrate esterase activity and focal coarse granular beta-glucuronidase activity, a pattern usually associated with acute lymphocytic leukemia. Electron microscopy demonstrated primitive cells with features usually associated with promonocyte differentiation including prominent parallel arrays of microfilaments and nucleoli of the nucleolonema type. In Wright-stained films, blasts contained oval, pale-blue, yellow tinged cytoplasmic inclusions about 2 to 4 micrometers in diameter which did not stain with any of the cytochemical methods employed. With electron microscopy, these inclusions were nonmembrane bound structures, varying from amorphous electron dense stippling to irregularly arranged short segments of filaments to prominent parallel arrays of filaments. We propose that the inclusions may have arisen from the parallel arrays of microfilaments and are nonspecific.
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PMID:Acute leukemia with unusual cytoplasmic inclusions: a cytochemical and ultrastructural study. 22 24

Observation of a unique population of cells on a Wright-stained blood smear of a patient with metastatic breast carcinoma prompted a study to determine their origin. The primary carcinoma contained a marker, the presence of "signet cells." These were demonstrated in direct peripheral smears and buffy coat preparation of peripheral blood and confirmed histochemically by showing positive periodic acid-Schiff, alpha-napthol and beta-glucuronidase reactions. "Carcinocythemia" is suggested as a name for this unusual process observed over a six month period. Studies of the patient's immunocompetence, of circulating cell surface immunoglobulins and karyotype analysis were made. Postmortem examination revealed retroperitoneal fibrosis, splenic atrophy and extensive metastatic carcinoma but no evidence of leukemia. The cells will be contrasted to those seen in a second patient who appeared to have acute myelocytic leukemia complicating extensive cancer involving the bone marrow. The observations suggest that a leukemia-like blood picture due to circulating cancer cells may occur during the course of metastatic breast carcinoma.
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PMID:Carcinocythemia (carcinoma cell leukemia). An acute leukemia-like picture due to metastatic carcinoma cells. 106 63