Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0004153 (atherosclerosis)
 77,401 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Cholesterol binds to streptolysin O and related bacterial toxins. In normal serum, only a fraction of the cholesterol attached to lipoprotein is available for binding, probably as a cholesterol-peptide complex formed during catabolic breakdown of the lipoprotein. Cholesterol esterase produced by certain organisms--e.g., Staphylococcus pyogenes and Pseudomonas oeruginosa--augments this fraction both in vitro and in vivo. Endogenous esterase similarly increases the amount of cholesterol-peptide complex, a mechanism which may be activated as a feedback process following binding of toxin to the cholesterol component of the complex. These complexes will thus supply a readily available means of binding bacterial toxins before antibody formation begins; Cholesterol-peptide complexes, either alone or modified by binding to toxin, may function as autoantigens. It is postulated that immune complexes so formed may be involved in atherosclerosis either by directly damaging vessels walls or by cross-reaction of antibody with cell-membrane-bound lipoproteins which equilibrate with plasma-lipoproteins.
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PMID:Functional role of cholesterol in infection and autoimmunity. 4 49

A man and his three daughters had massive corneal opacities called in their home village "fish-eye disease" because of the resemblance of the eyes to those of boiled fish. The two living daughters had the same dyslipoproteinaemia, characterised by normal serum cholesterol but raised serum triglycerides, raised very-low-density lipoproteins, strikingly high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) triglycerides. LDL contained normal sized as well as abnormally large particles and a 90% reduction in the level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) activity and the percentage of plasma cholesterol esters were normal, with excluded LCAT-deficiency. Normal electrophoretic mobility of HDL as well as other lipoprotein findings excluded Tangier disease. The clinical and laboratory abnormalities in fish-eye disease are atherosclerosis at old age, visual impairment, and dense corneal opacification. Fish-eye disease thus differs both clinically and in its lipoprotein abnormalities from LCAT-deficiency and Tangier disease.
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PMID:Fish-eye disease. A new familial condition with massive corneal opacities and dyslipoproteinaemia. 9 Oct 22

Tissues were studied from four subjects with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). The specimens consisted of tissues obtained from a 20-week-old fetus at autopsy, samples from a 9-year-old girl during open-heart surgery, and biopsies of cutaneous xanthomas from a 13-year-old girl and a 21-year-old man. The FH fetus, but not the 3 control fetuses, exhibited multifocal lipid deposition particularly involving the stromal cells of the thymus, spleen, and skin and both the stromal and parenchymal cells of the kidney. Only one minute focus of intimal lipid accumulation was found in the aorta and coronary arteries of the FH fetus. A segment of the ascending aorta from the 9-year-old girl showed: 1) foam-cell transformation of many medial smooth-muscle cells, 2) abnormal vascularization of the inner media and intima, and 3) intimal involvement by a typical artherosclerotic plaque with lipid deposits in thin, elongated cells that showed some myocytic features and in foam cells that lacked such features. The mitral and aortic valves of this patient also contained numerous foam cells and showed mild to moderate fibrous thickening. A segment of the saphenous vein, however, contained no lipid deposits. The three xanthomas from two FH homozygotes exhibited marked lipid accumulation in histiocytic foam cells but no lipid deposits in the endothelium of blood vessels in the lesions. The findings in this study, in conjunction with those reported in studies of other FH homozygotes, indicate that homozygous FH is characterized by accelerated atherosclerosis and prominent lipid accumulation in macrophages and other stromal cells of the aortic and mitral valves, skin, tendon, and, varibly, in other extravascular sites. Since most of the intracellular lipid was in the form of non-membrane-bound neutral lipid droplets, it appears that the cytoplasm is the major site of lipid storage in this disease.
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PMID:Cellular pathology of homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. 11 74

Siderophores, defined as high affinity iron(III) ion transport agents, and their cognate membrane-bound receptor complexes, occur in the enteric bacteria Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. The total system is tightly regulated by iron repression. The transport properties of the specific siderophores enterobactin and ferrichrome (which is not made by these particular enteric bacteria) have been examined in detail. In E. coli the outer membrane receptor for ferrichrome is programmed by the tonA gene; the receptor also serves as the binding site for T1, T5, phi80, albomycin and colicin M. Similarly, in S. typhimurium phage ES18, ferrichrome and albomycin compete for the genetic equivalent of the tonA locus. The ability of ascorbic acid to protect against atherosclerosis as well as rhinovirus infection in humans may be related to the role of the vitamin in iron metabolism. Deferrisiderophores are clinically useful in the treatment of acute and chronic iron poisoning but, on the other hand, they could constitute a natural hazard by transporting actinides, such as 239Pu, through the food chain.
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PMID:Siderophores: diverse roles in microbial and human physiology. 14 37

Accretion of cholesterol ester was studied in rat aortic smooth muscle cells in culture. Confluent multilayers of smooth muscle cells were exposed to human low density lipoprotein (LDL) and chloroquine and this treatment resulted in a very marked increase in cellular cholesterol ester. The degree of enrichment in cholesterol ester was related inversely to the cell density in the petri dish and was maximal in 48 h. The morphological changes after 48 h incubation with chloroquine and LDL consisted of accumulation of numerous membrane-bound inclusions containing electron-dense and electron-lucent material, some of which resembled secondary lysosomes. These changes resembled some of the changes observed in human and experimental atheromatosis. Similar inclusions were seen also in cultured human skin fibroblasts which accumulated large amounts of cholesterol ester during 48 h incubation with LDL and chloroquine. Removal of the accumulated cellular cholesterol ester was studied in the two cell types and it was markedly enhanced in the presence of lipoprotein-deficient serum and high density apolipoprotein-sphingomyelin mixture. The morphological findings after 24 h of post incubation revealed the presence of empty vacuoles, membrane whorls and cytoplasmic lipid droplets. The present results indicate that aortic smooth muscle cells in culture can serve as a good model to study the role of the lysosomal system in atherogenesis.
Atherosclerosis 1977 Apr
PMID:Cholesterol ester accumulation in cultured aortic smooth muscle cells. Induction of cholesterol ester retention by chloroquine and low density lipoprotein and its reversion by mixtures of high density apolipoprotein and sphingomyelin. 19 22

A patient with asymptomatic hypocholesterolemia, mild hyperbilirubinemia, and splenomegaly was found, on lipoprotein analysis, to have Tangier disease (alpha-lipoprotein deficiency). He represents the first patient with the disease in the northeastern Unit States. Although free of clinical evidence of atherosclerosis at age 38 years, the patient has widespread tissue cholesterol ester deposition and a stron family history of atherosclerosis. Tangier disease may be much underdiagnosed; it should be suspected in every patient with hypocholesterolemia.
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PMID:Tangier disease (alpha-lipoprotein deficiency). 19

The uptake and incorporation of [I14-C] oleic acid by diseased arterial intima removed by thrombendarteriectomy in 3 patients with Thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO) was studied. The diagnosis of TAO had been established by clinical, angiographic and histological criteria. The uptake and distribution of the label was found very similar in TAO and normal intima and differed considerably from atherosclerotic intima, from fatty streaks as well as from fibro-fatty lesions. In fatty streak lesions the incorporation of [I14-C] oleic acid into phospholipid, triglyceride and cholesterol ester was significantly increased compared to TAO, normal intima and unbilical artery. In TAO the distribution of labeled lipids between subcellular fractions of the arterial intima was also studied and, as in normal intima, most of the cholesterol ester were found membrane-bound whereas in fibro-fatty lesions the bulk of the cholesterol ester was present in the lipid skin fraction. The incorporation of [I14-C] oleic acid into different phospholipids was highest in atherosclerotic intima while no significant differences were found between normal intima and TAO. These data suggest a different pathogenesis of TAO and atherosclerosis.
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PMID:Lipid metabolism of the arterial wall in thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger's disease). 81 3

A Caucasian family of mediterranean origin comprising a patient whose parents were first cousins, his wife and their three children, and his two sisters have been studied. The patient and his two daughters were afflicted with the same corneal opacities and hypoalphalipoproteinaemia. The disease was shown to be transmitted as a non-sex-linked recessive trait. The corneal opacities develop at the end of the second decade of life and consist of numerous minute greyish dots in the entire corneal stroma that give the cornea a misty appearance. Vision slowly deteriorated from 40 years of age. At about 50 years of age, except in one of the two daughters who showed Marfanoid syndrome, the three patients had good general health and no symptoms of atherosclerosis. Biochemical investigations showed hypoalphalipoproteinaemia (with a faint fast-moving HDL band on polyacrylamide gel gradient electrophoresis and small arcs of HDL2 and HDL3 of low mobility determined by agarose gel immunoelectrophoresis), low total cholesterol (3.5-4.9 mmol l-1), slightly decreased cholesteryl ester/total cholesterol ratio (0.52-0.63), extremely low HDL cholesterol (0.20-0.21 mmol l-1), mild hypertriglyceridaemia (1.94-3.80 mmol l-1), and striking deficiency in apo A-I and apo A-II (0.45-0.72, 0.08-0.16 g l-1, respectively). The esterification of HDL cholesterol was low while that of LDL and VLDL was nearly normal. Other laboratory values were normal. The HDL subspecies and major apolipoprotein isoforms have been studied to differentiate FED from Tangier disease, LCAT deficiency, as Apo A-I, A-II, C-II, C-III deficiencies and variants.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:A 'Fish-eye disease' familial condition with massive corneal opacities and hypoalphalipoproteinaemia: clinical, biochemical and genetic features. 177 23

Advances in regulation by secondary messengers of Ca2+ level in cardiomyocyte and vascular smooth muscle cell cytosols with special reference to the major differences in regulatory effects in cells of the both types are reviewed. The effects of cAMP, cGMP, Ca2+, calmodulin, diacylglycerol and polyphosphoinositides on the Ca(2+)-channel, Ca(2+)-ATPase, plasmalemma, sarcoplasmic reticulum and outer membrane Na+/Ca2+ uniporter function are considered. Compartmentation of secondary messengers and protein kinase in cardiac and vascular smooth muscle cells should be taken into consideration during extrapolation of in vitro data to an in situ situation. The feasible role of impaired phosphorylation of membrane-bound proteins of cardiac and vascular smooth muscle cells in cardiac insufficiency and atherosclerosis is discussed.
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PMID:[Second messengers in heart cells and smooth muscle vessels]. 191 66

The familial hypoalphalipoproteinemias are a heterogeneous group of rare lipoprotein disorders characterized by extremely low levels of plasma high density lipoproteins (HDL) and, in most cases, autosomal recessive inheritance. Most of these conditions present distinctive and diagnostic clinical and laboratory abnormalities. In spite of the marked reductions in HDL, however, many of these conditions are not associated with premature atherosclerosis. This is true of Tangier disease, Fish Eye disease, lecithin: cholesterol acyltransferase deficiency, and of some variants of apo Al. Another condition, defined as a primary and familial decrease in HDL-cholesterol levels in the absence of other lipoprotein abnormalities. that is associated with premature atherosclerosis was originally called Familial Hypoalphalipoproteinemia but is better referred as to Familial Isolated Hypoalphalipoproteinemia. At present, the prevalence, inheritance, and the underlying defect(s) in this disorder are unknown. Decreased or absent synthesis of apo A-I due to a gene defect is the cause of apo A-I/C-III and apo A-I/C-III/A-IV deficiency. However, the etiology of the low levels of HDL is unclear for most of the remaining familial hypoalphalipoproteinemias. Increased catabolism, decreased synthesis and altered equilibration of HDL between intra- and extravascular spaces have all been suggested as underlying causes of low plasma HDL. Whatever their causes, these disorders are associated with altered HDL composition and altered equilibration of cholesterol amongst the various lipoprotein classes. The absence of consistent correlation with premature atherosclerosis in many of these conditions suggests that the protective effect of HDL may reside in a quantitatively small, but metabolically active subfraction of HDL particles.
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PMID:Familial hypoalphalipoproteinemias. 211 26


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