Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0019209 (hepatomegaly)
 5,798 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The nonerythropoietic component of early labeled bilirubin in plasma and bile was studied in 7 patients with acute infectious hepatitis during the late convalescent stage, in 13 patients with Laennec-type liver cirrhosis, and in 7 control subjects after intravenous injection of a tracer dose (2.5 muCi) of 4-14C-delta-aminolevulinic acid (14C-deltaALA). All subjects were examined during the nonicteric stage. In control subjects, the mean cumulative radioactivity readings in 4 hours were 29.6 +/- 4.7 X 10(3) d.p.m. per milligram times 4 hours in plasma and 27.0 +/- 1.2 X 10(3) d.p.m. per milligram times 4 hours in bile. In acute infectious hepatitis patients, the mean cumulative radioactivity readings for both plasma and bile in 4 hours were approximately twice that found in control subjects. In mild cirrhotic patients with enlarged liver on scintigram, the mean cumulative radioactivity readings for both plasma and bile were approximately 1.4 times that in control subjects. In patients with more advanced cirrhosis and markedly small livers on scintigram, the mean cumulative radioactivity readings for both plasma and bile were as low as approximately 0.5 that of control subjects. These findings seem to indicate the important role of the liver in the production of the nonerythropoietic component of early bilirubin in man.
 ...
PMID:The effects of acute infectious hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver on the nonerythropoietic component of early bilirubin. 124 90

In the present study, the effect of chronic ethanol consumption in rats on the hepatic heme metabolism was investigated. Male Wistar rats were fed a nutritionally adequate liquid diet containing ethanol as 36% of the total calories for 5 weeks. After an overnight fast, the livers were excised and centrifuged to obtain mitochondrial and microsomal fractions. Chronic ethanol feeding of rats resulted in about 19% hepatomegaly as represented by the increased liver/body weight ratio. There was no difference in the mitochondrial protein content between the ethanol-treated and control rats, but the microsomal protein content was significantly increased in the ethanol-treated rats. Hepatic microsomal content of cytochrome P-450 (P-450) was markedly enhanced by chronic ethanol ingestion. Microsomal contents of cytochrome b5 (b5) and total heme were also increased to a lesser extent. After chronic ethanol abuse, the hepatic activity of delta-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) synthetase, which is a rate-limiting enzyme for heme production, was significantly increased and that of the heme oxygenase was slightly increased. These data indicate that ALA synthetase activity is induced by the negative feedback mechanism in order to compensate the depletion of heme caused by the utilization of heme for P-450. It is also speculated that, in response to excessive production of heme as described above, heme oxygenase activity is secondarily induced to regulate the amount of heme.
 ...
PMID:Alterations in hepatic delta-aminolevulinic acid synthetase and heme oxygenase activities after chronic ethanol consumption in rats. 178 21