Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.4.21.4 (trypsin)
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The most frequent site of organ involvement in patients with any form of mastocytosis is the skin. Cutaneous expressions include urticaria pigmentosa, mastocytoma, diffuse and erythrodermic cutaneous mastocytosis, and telangiectasia macularis eruptiva perstans. The cutaneous lesions tend to appear early in life. Although urticaria pigmentosa has been reported in 12 pairs of twins and one set of triplets, the majority of affected individuals have no familial association. Most patients with systemic mastocytosis have skin lesions; however, an occasional patient will have systemic disease with no other skin features than flushing. In lesional cutaneous sites and in non-lesional skin, there is an increase in the number of mast cells. Electron microscopy shows quantitative differences between lesional skin mast cells from patients with and without systemic disease. The mast cells from adult patients with systemic disease have a larger mean cytoplasmic area, nuclear size, and granule diameter. The granules contain predominantly grating/lattice structures. The cutaneous mast cells contain tryptase and chymase. They retain their functional reactivities to relevant secretory stimuli, such as C3a, morphine sulfate, and calcium ionophore A23187. Lesional skin contains histamine, leukotriene B4, prostaglandin D2, 5-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid, platelet-activating factor, and heparin. Treatment of the cutaneous manifestations includes the use of H1 and H2 antihistamines, oral disodium cromoglycate, psoralens plus ultraviolet A photochemotherapy, and potent topical corticosteroid preparations.
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PMID:The skin in mastocytosis. 167 36

The levels of tryptase in the suction-blister fluid from patients with chronic urticaria, urticaria pigmentosa, cholinergic urticaria, urticarial dermographism, prurigo of unknown origin, eczema, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and from healthy controls were studied. The blister fluid from controls contained up to 15 micrograms/l of tryptase, whereas that from patients with active urticaria contained greater than 50 micrograms/l. This study demonstrates that patients with urticaria have mast cells that readily release tryptase in both the lesional and non-lesional areas of skin.
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PMID:Increased tryptase levels in suction-blister fluid from patients with urticaria. 187 96

In order to identify possible cellular abnormalities in human mastocytosis, sections from 13 urticaria pigmentosa lesions and 5 mastocytomas were compared with 5 normal skin specimens using histochemical, enzyme histochemical and immunohistochemical techniques. All toluidine blue-positive mast cells also reacted with Fc epsilon RI and c-kit antibodies, almost all stained for tryptase, many for chymase and the myeloid workshop mast cell antibodies, few for Fc epsilon RII and none for the proliferation marker Ki-67. Urticaria pigmentosa lesions contained fewer epidermal Langerhans cells and a lower percentage of avidin-positive mast cells than mastocytomas and normal skin. Mastocytomas exhibited generally weaker staining for mast cell markers and mostly lacked Fc epsilon RI-bound IgE on mast cells and Langerhans cells, although the receptor was able to bind IgE in tissue sections. Most of the mast cell antibodies also reacted with other cell types. Only toluidine blue, avidin, tryptase and chymase stains were mast cell specific. Mast cells in mastocytosis thus differed only to a minor degree from normal mast cells, although distinct pathomechanisms may play a role in urticaria pigmentosa and mastocytosis.
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PMID:Phenotypic characterization of skin lesions in urticaria pigmentosa and mastocytomas. 754 Nov 89

It has been reported that the administration of interferon alpha-2b is of potential benefit in the treatment of mastocytosis based on a single patient study (NEJM, Feb 27, 1992, 326(9):619-623). Following this report, we administered interferon alpha-2b at a dose of 4 to 5 million units per square meter of body surface area for at least 12 months to one patient with mastocytosis with an associated hematologic disorder (patient 1), one patient with aggressive systemic mastocytosis (patient 2), and one patient with indolent mastocytosis (patient 3). Patients were monitored with the following clinical and laboratory parameters: serial bone marrow biopsies and aspirates, patient log of histamine release attacks, medication dependency, plasma tryptase levels, serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels, white blood cell counts and differentials, extent of urticaria pigmentosa lesions, bony involvement, and extent of gastrointestinal involvement and hepatomegaly. We also examined the ability of interferon alpha-2b to inhibit recombinant human stem cell factor (rhSCF)-dependent mast cell proliferation from CD34+ bone marrow-derived cells. All patients demonstrated continued progression of disease in one or more clinical criteria at one year of therapy. Similarly, interferon alpha-2b did not inhibit the culture of mast cells from CD34+ bone marrow-derived cells in the presence of SCF. Thus, in our study of three patients with systemic mastocytosis, treatment with interferon alpha-2b was found to be ineffective in controlling progression of disease.
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PMID:Treatment of three patients with systemic mastocytosis with interferon alpha-2b. 888 64

Human mast cells contain large quantities of chymotryptic and tryptic proteinases. In human skin, mast cells contain both chymase and tryptase, whereas, in the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract, mast cells contain primarily tryptase. By contrast, submucosal mast cells in the gastrointestinal tract are of the connective tissue type because they contain both chymase and tryptase. Chymase has a broad array of biological functions which include; activation of angiotensin, cleavage of basement membrane through the lamina lucida, activation of IL1 beta, and potentiation of histamine. Chymase may play a significant role in the control of a variety of biological phenomena. Urticaria pigmentosa is a disease characterized by deposition of "normal" connective tissue mast cells within the skin. The source of these mast cells is the bone marrow and mast cells appear to be deposited within other internal organs in almost all cases. Excretion of histamine and prostaglandin metabolites correlates with the deposition of mast cells in extracutaneous sites. High potency steroids under occlusion for six week results in long-lasting clearing of the cutaneous lesions with minimal side effects.
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PMID:Mastocytosis: new understandings in cutaneous pathophysiology. 899 Jun 99

Human mast cell precursors arise in the bone marrow and circulate to different tissue microenvironments, where they develop distinct phenotypes that may be characterized by differential expression of the serine protease, chymase. The growth and development of mast cells is stimulated by mast cell growth factor, which is also known as kit ligand because its obligate receptor is KIT, the protein product of the c-KIT proto-oncogene. The in vivo influence of the KIT-kit ligand axis on the phenotype of human mast cells has not been determined. We used immunohistochemistry to detect in situ expression of tryptase and chymase by mast cells of a patient with urticaria pigmentosa and aggressive systemic mastocytosis, whose pathologic mast cells are clonally derived and chronically stimulated by KIT because they all contain the same point mutation causing constitutive activation of KIT. Mast cells in both spleen and skin expressed tryptase, but only in the skin did a majority of mast cells express chymase. We conclude that chronic stimulation of the KIT-kit ligand axis does not irrevocably commit mast cells to a chymase-positive or chymase-negative phenotype. These findings suggest that factors other than kit ligand predominate in determining mast cell phenotype.
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PMID:Chronically KIT-stimulated clonally-derived human mast cells show heterogeneity in different tissue microenvironments. 945 20

Systemic mast cell disease/mastocytosis (SMCD) is best defined as a multitopic proliferation of cytologically and/or functionally abnormal tissue mast cells (TMC). SMCD preferentially involves the bone marrow, skin, spleen, liver, and lymph nodes. The histopathological diagnosis of SMCD may be very difficult to make, and the disease is often not considered in the differential diagnosis of lymphoreticular neoplasia. In suspected cases of SMCD, basic dyes such as Giemsa and toluidine blue are useful to demonstrate the specific metachromatic granules of TMC. The naphthol AS-D chloroacetate esterase reaction has also proved to be very reliable for enzyme-histochemical identification of TMC. Major diagnostic problems may arise in cases of malignant or "aggressive" SMCD exhibiting tissue infiltrates consisting predominantly of highly atypical, non-metachromatic TMC, which are usually also only weakly reactive for chloroacetate esterase. Immunostaining with antibodies against the mast cell-specific proteases tryptase and chymase has proved to be of great value of establishing the correct diagnosis in such cases. Anti-tryptase antibodies have major diagnostic significance due to their extremely high sensitivity and specificity. The classification of SMCD is controversial, but there is increasing support for the differentiation of at least two major subtypes that differ in prognosis: (i) a benign or "indolent" variant in which skin involvement (urticaria pigmentosa-like skin lesions) is usual, but associated malignant hematological disorders are rare; and (ii) a malignant or "aggressive" variant where skin involvement is usually absent but concomitant malignant hematological disorders (myelodysplastic and myeloproliferative syndromes and acute non-lymphocytic leukemias) are very common. Preliminary molecular biological studies of a few cases of malignant SMCD using the recently developed HUMARA assay have yielded evidence that the disease is monoclonal.
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PMID:Systemic mast cell disease (mastocytosis). General aspects and histopathological diagnosis. 930 69

The term "mastocytosis" is used to describe a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by abnormal growth and accumulation of mast cells (MCs). Cutaneous and systemic variants exist. Systemic mastocytosis may show an indolent or malignant clinical course. In malignant mastocytosis (MM), the diagnosis often is missed because the MCs are morphologically abnormal and lack metachromatic granules or the underlying histologic picture is complex. The cytoplasmic serine protease tryptase is produced by MCs and is thought to be expressed at all stages of MC maturation. To assess the diagnostic value of tryptase staining in mastocytosis, tissue sections from 93 patients with mastocytosis, including MM (n = 37), systemic indolent mastocytosis (n = 47), urticaria pigmentosa (n = 5), MC leukemia (n = 2), and solitary skin mastocytoma (n = 2) were stained with the antitryptase antibody G3. The results were compared with those of Giemsa and chloroacetate esterase (CAE) staining. Using antitryptase antibody G3, MC infiltrates were identified in all patients examined, including those with MM (37 of 37), and virtually all the neoplastic MCs (> 95%) appeared to react with G3. In MM, significantly fewer MCs were positive in Giemsa (54.5%; p < 0.05) and CAE (78.8%; p < 0.05). Moreover, G3 produced clear diagnostic staining in all cases of MM, but the proportion of cases with clear diagnostic results (> 10% of neoplastic cells positive) was considerably lower with Giemsa (48.6%; p < 0.05) and CAE (75.7%; p < 0.05) staining. By contrast, tryptase, Giemsa, and CAE produced diagnostic staining of MCs in virtually all cases of systemic indolent mastocytosis, urticaria pigmentosa, and solitary skin mastocytoma. In systemic mastocytosis, survival was significantly reduced in cases with Giemsa-/tryptase+ or CAE-/tryptase+ tumor cells compared to those cases with Giemsa+ or CAE+ MC infiltrates (p < 0.001).
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PMID:Diagnostic value of immunostaining for tryptase in patients with mastocytosis. 973 47

Serum tryptase was measured with the B12 and G5 antibody-based immunoassays in 25 adult patients with mastocytosis and in 18 controls. Twelve patients had uncomplicated cutaneous mastocytosis (urticaria pigmentosa) and 13 had urticaria pigmentosa with systemic symptoms. Tryptase levels were compared with histamine turnover estimated as urinary excretion of the main histamine metabolite tele-methylimidazoleacetic acid. Elevated B12 tryptase levels (> 20 microg/L) were found in most mastocytosis patients, including five of eight patients with only cutaneous manifestations who had a low urinary histamine metabolite excretion. This indicated a higher sensitivity for diagnosing mild mastocytosis on the basis of levels of serum tryptase as opposed to urinary methylimidazoleacetic acid. However, the serum B12 tryptase assay could not differentiate between urticaria pigmentosa patients with and without systemic disease: the measurement of histamine metabolite excretion probably reflects the mast cell burden more accurately. Serum G5 tryptase levels were generally low in both controls and mastocytosis patients.
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PMID:Serum tryptase measured with B12 and G5 antibody-based immunoassays in mastocytosis patients and its relation to histamine turnover. 989 55

Systemic mastocytosis is a disease of mast cell proliferation that may be associated with hematologic disorders. There are no features on examination that allow the diagnosis of systemic disease, and mast cell-derived mediators, which may be elevated in urine or blood, may also be elevated in individuals with severe allergic disorders. Thus, the diagnosis usually depends on results of bone marrow biopsy. To facilitate evaluation, surrogate markers of the extent and severity of the disease are needed. Because of the association of mastocytosis with hematologic disease, plasma levels were measured for soluble KIT (sKIT) and soluble interleukin-2 receptor alpha chain (sCD25), which are known to be cleaved in part from the mast cell surface and are elevated in some hematologic malignancies. Results revealed that levels of both soluble receptors are increased in systemic mastocytosis. Median plasma sKIT concentrations as expressed by AU/mL (1 AU = 1.4 ng/mL) were as follows: controls, 176 (n = 60); urticaria pigmentosa without systemic involvement, 194 (n = 8); systemic indolent mastocytosis, 511 (n = 30); systemic mastocytosis with an associated hematologic disorder, 1320 (n = 7); aggressive mastocytosis, 3390 (n = 3). Plasma sCD25 levels were elevated in systemic mastocytosis; the highest levels were associated with extensive bone marrow involvement. Levels of sKIT correlated with total tryptase levels, sCD25 levels, and bone marrow pathology. These results demonstrate that sKIT and sCD25 are useful surrogate markers of disease severity in patients with mastocytosis and should aid in diagnosis, in the selection of those needing a bone marrow biopsy, and in the documentation of disease progression. (Blood. 2000;96:1267-1273)
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PMID:Soluble stem cell factor receptor (CD117) and IL-2 receptor alpha chain (CD25) levels in the plasma of patients with mastocytosis: relationships to disease severity and bone marrow pathology. 1094 67


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