Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.4.21.4 (trypsin)
 42,187 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A rat with a congenital aganglionosis develops a mega-small intestine and megacolon. This rat mutant has been used as an animal model for Hirschsprung's disease. The myenteric and submucosal plexuses of the rats were exposed by the trypsin-HCl digestion method and examined by scanning electron microscopy. In the control rats the myenteric and submucosal plexuses were present throughout the gut. However, in the mutant rats the myenteric plexus of duodenum was different from those of control rats; the mesh of plexuses varied both in size and shape. There were no myenteric or submucosal plexuses in the distal ileum or colon.
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PMID:Myenteric and submucosal plexuses of the congenital aganglionosis rat (spotting lethal) as revealed by scanning electron microscopy. 800 52

Megacolon is frequently observed in patients who develop the digestive form of Chagas disease. It is characterized by dilation of the rectum-sigmoid portion and thickening of the colon wall. Microscopically, the affected organ presents denervation, which has been considered as consequence of an inflammatory process that begins at the acute phase and persists in the chronic phase of infection. Inflammatory infiltrates are composed of lymphocytes, macrophages, natural killer cells, mast cells, and eosinophils. In this study, we hypothesized that mast cells producing tryptase could influence the migration and the activation of eosinophils at the site, thereby contributing to the immunopathology of the chronic phase. We seek evidence of interactions between mast cells and eosinophils through (1) evaluation of eosinophils, regarding the expression of PAR2, a tryptase receptor; (2) correlation analysis between densities of mast cells and eosinophils; and (3) ultrastructural studies. The electron microscopy studies revealed signs of activation of mast cells and eosinophils, as well as physical interaction between these cells. Immunohistochemistry and correlation analyses point to the participation of tryptase immunoreactive mast cells in the migration and/or survival of eosinophils at the affected organ.
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PMID:Mast cells in the colon of Trypanosoma cruzi-infected patients: are they involved in the recruitment, survival and/or activation of eosinophils? 2571 Nov 47

Chagas disease is an infection caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi that affects millions of people worldwide and is endemic in Latin America. Megacolon is the most frequent complication of the digestive chronic form and happens due to lesions of the enteric nervous system. The neuronal lesions seem to initiate in the acute phase and persist during the chronic phase, albeit the mechanisms involved in this process are still debated. Among the cells of the immune system possibly involved in this pathological process is the mast cell (MC) due to its well-known role in the bi-directional communication between the immune and nervous systems. Using ultrastructural analysis, we found an increased number of degranulated MCs in close proximity to nerve fibers in infected patients when compared with uninfected controls. We also immunostained MCs for the two pro-inflammatory molecules tryptase and chymase, the first being also important in neuronal death. The number of MCs immunostained for tryptase or chymase was increased in patients with megacolon, whereas increased tryptase staining was additionally observed in patients without megacolon. Moreover, we detected the expression of the tryptase receptor PAR2 in neurons of the enteric nervous system, which correlated to the tryptase staining results. Altogether, the data presented herein point to the participation of MCs on the denervation process that occurs in the development of T. cruzi-induced megacolon.
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PMID:Mast cell-nerve interaction in the colon of Trypanosoma cruzi-infected individuals with chagasic megacolon. 2947 Jul 11