Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:6.2.1.7 (BAL)
 1,977 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Fifteen asthmatic patients were prospectively selected. If they had more than 450 eosinophils in peripheral blood on admission to hospital treatment and if before BAL had been performed they were not treated by corticosteroids. No associated disease was found which could cause the increased number of eosinophils in peripheral blood except bronchial asthma. BAL was performed when the subjects tested had no dyspnea, usually 1-3 days after the hospital admission. In contrast to blood eosinophilia, increase of eosinophils number in BAL was found to correlate to impairment of clinically measured parameters such as: ventilation level of blood gases and duration of hospitalisation. On the contrary there was no correlation between the level of blood eosinophilia and gas disturbance and duration of hospitalisation. Eosinophilic proteins (MBP, ECP, EPX, EPO) are not the only that harmfully effect the lung cells in the asthmatic attack but the fact that their level in lavage fluid correlates to eosinophilia degree in BAL is evident so the correlation between the number of eosinophils in BAL and impairment of clinically measured parameters is clear.
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PMID:[Evidence of the harmful effects of eosinophils in bronchial asthma]. 221 19

At present there is some indirect evidence for increased nocturnal inflammation in patients suffering from nocturnal asthma: 1. Circulating eosinophil numbers and activation, as reflected by increased levels of ECP and EDN and low-density eosinophils, are increased at night. 2. Circulating histamine levels are increased at night. 3. Hyperresponsiveness to AMP at night is increased compared with hyperresponsiveness to methacholine. However, most results of various studies point to nocturnal asthma's being an expression of more severe asthma: 1. Both AMP and propranolol responsiveness, indirect measures of airway hyperresponsiveness, are lower both at 4:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. in asthmatics with nocturnal asthma than those without nocturnal asthma. 2. Patients with nocturnal asthma have higher circulating numbers of eosinophils at both 4:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. than those without nocturnal asthma, and eosinophil survival is not different at these times. 3. Patients with nocturnal asthma have higher PGD2 levels in BAL both at 4:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. than those without nocturnal asthma, but show no significant difference between levels at these two times. 4. Two studies have shown no difference in BAL eosinophil numbers and activation parameters at night in nocturnal asthma. 5. Histamine levels in BAL fluid are comparable day and night in patients with and without nocturnal asthma. 6. Inflammatory mediators in BAL are higher in asthmatic patients than in normal subjects, but are not different between patients with and without nocturnal asthma. Thus, patients with nocturnal asthmatic symptoms show an overall increased burden of mediators released from mast cells and other inflammatory cells. In conclusion, we feel that the term "nocturnal asthma" is misleading, in that it does not describe a unique entity in certain patients with asthma. We prefer, in view of the previous arguments, to consider nocturnal asthma a mere expression of more severe asthma. Thus we suggest the term "nocturnal asthma" be changed to "asthma with nocturnal symptoms."
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PMID:Inflammation in nocturnal asthma? 795

It has been known that eosinophilia in the peripheral blood or tissue participate in allergic inflammatory reactions and parasitic diseases. The function of eosinophils depend on the biological activity of the granule proteins. Four of these protein-MBP, ECP, EPO, and EDN have been known. There are some assumptions that the eosinophils might cause a tissue damage on examination of their specific protein. Therefore, the measurements of these granule proteins might clarify the pathogenesis of eosinophils related diseases. In this review, we introduce a convenient method for purification, quantitative measurement in serum, BAL and detection of localization in tissue by an immunofluorescence method for specific staining of eosinophil granule proteins.
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PMID:[The measurement of eosinophil granule proteins]. 849 49

The severity of asthma can be graded from mild intermittent to severe persistent. Airway inflammation is a feature of persistent asthma. We compared several markers of inflammation in mucosal biopsies and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL fluid) from 12 healthy control subjects, 24 patients with intermittent asthma, and 18 patients with mild-to-moderate persistent asthma. Epithelial shedding, eosinophil (EG2-positive cells), and activated T-cell (UCHL1) counts in biopsies, and ECP levels in BAL fluids were significantly increased in patients with intermittent asthma by comparison with control subjects and this increase was significantly greater for patients with persistent asthma. Alveolar macrophage activation (percentage of hypodense cells) and the thickness of the basement membrane were significantly increased in asthmatic subjects as compared with controls but there was no difference between the two asthmatic groups. Hyaluronic acid levels in BAL fluids were significantly increased in patients with persistent asthma by comparison with control subjects and patients with intermittent asthma. Mast cell numbers (toluidine blue) in biopsies and histamine or levels in BAL fluids were similar in the three groups. This study shows that airways inflammation is present in patients with intermittent asthma but to a lesser extent than in patients with persistent asthma.
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PMID:Airway inflammation in mild intermittent and in persistent asthma. 947 50

Pathogenic mechanisms of mycoplasmal pneumonia is not fully understood at present though some kind of cell-mediated hypersensitivity is closely related to its mechanisms. Though eosinophilia in peripheral blood are sometimes revealed in patient with mycoplasmal pneumonia, it is not unclear whether eosinophils related to its pathogenesis, or not. We evaluated the clinical significance of ECP in serum and BAL fluid in patients with mycoplasmal pneumonia. The diagnosis of mycoplasmal pneumonia was confirmed both by serological diagnosis from paired serum and by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods using specific primers of the Mycoplasma pneumoniae for detecting specific DNA from bronchial washing fluids. ECP level in serum were measured in 27 patients (11 male, 16 female, average age 31.7 yo) with mycoplasmal pneumonia by ELISA methods. ECP level in BALF were also measured in ten of all patients. The level of ECP in serum was high in 17 cases (63%) of the total cases. In addition the level of ECP in BALF was also high in all tested patients (10 cases). There was a correlation between serum ECP level and days from onset. There was also a correlation between serum ECP level and WBC counts, the degree of PaO2. These results suggested that ECP derived from activated eosinophils in the lung might in part play a role in the pathogenesis of mycoplasmal pneumonia.
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PMID:[Clinical significance of eosinophilic cationic protein in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of adult patients with mycoplasmal pneumonia]. 1121 84

Bronchial asthma is a chronic condition with an inflammatory background--allergic inflammation. In recent years several observations have been published documenting activity of low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) in chronic inflammatory diseases of respiratory tract. This study was set up to evaluate the effect of nebulized LMWH on spirometric parameters and selected markers of allergic inflammation in bronchial asthma. Twenty patients diagnosed with mild or moderate asthma entered the study. At the beginning and at the end of the experiment every patient underwent bronchoscopy with BAL and in 15 of them bronchial biopsy was performed. Blood was drawn for ECP evaluation. LMWH was administered in nebulization in a dose 5000 U Xa/day for two weeks. BALf cellularity was evaluated as well as BALf IL-5 concentration. Further ELAM-1 and VCAM-1 expression in bronchial mucosa was examined in immunohistochemistry. We demonstrated that heparin treatment significantly enhanced FEV1 from 76.02 +/- 21.7% nominate value before to 92.4 +/- 21.8% after treatment (p < 0.005). Cellular profile of BALf changed, showing significant drop in percentages of eosinophils--from 7% to 6% (p < 0.05), macrophages--38 to 32% (p < 0.05) and neutrophils--32 to 28% (p < 0.05). Surprisingly we did not notice any change in ECP concentration in blood serum or IL-5 in BALf. Also adhesion molecules expression in bronchial mucosa remained unchanged. We conclude that chronic LMWH nebulization is a valuable treatment ameliorating asthmatic condition clearly due to anti-inflammatory properties of heparin. Both dose of LMWH used and the time of therapy have to be further investigated in order to develop treatment able to influence more of the elements of allergic inflammation.
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PMID:[Influence of long-term low molecular weight heparin nebulization on selected clinical parameters and course of allergic inflammation in patients with bronchial asthma]. 1202 31

Bronchial asthma is a chronic disease of the respiratory tract. Search for alternative to presently used therapies seems to be the way to obtain a better control of asthma. Heparin is an acidic mucopolysaccharide and in the past years there has been a number of reports on the role of heparin and low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) in chronic inflammatory disorders of the respiratory tract. Our aim was to estimate the effect of long-time LMWH nebulization on selected parameters in asthmatic patients. Twenty-four patients entered the study. All of them were subjected to bronchoscopy with BAL, in 8 patients this procedure was performed twice: before and after heparin treatment. After 14 days of treatment we observed an increase in FEV1 (from 73.93 +/- 14.14% (in % of nominal value) to 89.62 +/- 10.08% (p = 0.0049). Additionally we noted a decrease in the percentage of eosinophils and lymphocytes in BAL sediments, from 4.86 +/- 3.48% to 1.25 +/- 2.76%; p = 0.0006 and from 5.39 +/- 2.25% to 2.94 +/- 1.23%; p = 0.0209, respectively. This changes were paralleled by a drop of EG2 in BAL supernatant from 1.00 +/- 0.99 to 0.13 +/- 0.35, p = 0.0256. In blood serum level of histamine 0.74 +/- 0.77 to 0.1 +/- 0.22; p = 0.0493. We did not observe significant changes in IL-5, sVCAM-1 or ECP concentrations in serum. Also different LMWH dosing (5-10 kUIC anti-Xa b.i.d.) did not produce any dose-response effect. We conclude, that LMWH in nebulization can be a valuable add-on treatment in bronchial asthma, and its most likely mechanisms of action are: prevention of mast cell degranulation (histamine decrease), decreased eosinophil activation (lower EG2), and modification of inflammatory cells influx (decreased percentages of eosinophils and lymphocytes in BAL).
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PMID:[Mechanisms of action of nebulized low molecular weights heparin in patients with bronchial asthma]. 1505 58