Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0019214 (hepatosplenomegaly)
4,408 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Familial haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (FHL) is a rare and uniformly fatal disorder of early childhood characterized by fever, hepatosplenomegaly, cytopenia and widespread infiltration of vital organs by activated lymphocytes and macrophages. In order to test whether the massive accumulation of immune cells in these patients is associated with a perturbation of apoptosis, lymphocytes were isolated from eight patients and subjected to the chemotherapeutic agent etoposide or agonistic anti-Fas monoclonal antibodies in vitro. These stimuli elicited a normal apoptotic response in FHL patient cells when compared to healthy controls, as determined by phosphatidylserine exposure, DNA fragmentation, in vitro cleavage of the caspase-3-like substrate aspartate-glutamate-valine-aspartate-7-amino-4-methyl-coumarin (DEVD-AMC) and proteolysis of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2. In addition, the degree of constitutive and Fas-triggered apoptosis in freshly isolated neutrophils was monitored in three children, with similar results. These studies indicate that immune cells derived from FHL patients are not inherently resistant to apoptosis induction. Specifically, etoposide-induced and Fas-triggered activation of intracellular caspases appears to remain intact in these individuals. However, the degree of spontaneous activation of caspase-3-like enzymes in activated lymphocytes was attenuated in three of the four patients tested prior to initiation of therapy, suggesting a possible biological deficiency in these individuals.
...
PMID:Induction of apoptosis and caspase activation in cells obtained from familial haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis patients. 1046 May 99

Clinical manifestations of Niemann-Pick type C1 (NP-C1) disease include neonatal hepatosplenomegaly and in some patients progressive liver dysfunction and failure. This study involved a 1H NMR-linked metabolomics analysis of liver samples collected from a NP-C1 disease mutant mouse model in order to explore time-dependent imbalances in metabolic pathways associated with NP-C1 liver dysfunction, including fibrosis. NP-C1 mutant (Npc1-/-; NP-C1), control (Npc1+/+; WT), and NP-C1 heterozygous mice (Npc1+/-; HET) were generated from heterozygote matings. Aqueous extracts of these liver samples collected at time points of 3, 6, 9, and 11 weeks were subjected to high-resolution NMR analysis, and multivariate (MV) metabolomics analyses of data sets acquired were performed. A MV random forests (RFs) model effectively discriminated between NP-C1 and a combined WT/HET hepatic NMR profiles with very high predictive accuracy and reliability. Key distinguishing features included significant upregulations in the hepatic concentrations of phenylalanine, tyrosine, glutamate, lysine/ornithine, valine, threonine, and hypotaurine/methionine, and diminished levels of nicotinate/niacinamide, inosine, phosphoenolpyruvate, and 3-hydroxyphenylacetate. Quantitative pathway topological analysis confirmed that imbalances in tyrosine biosynthesis, and hepatic phenylalanine, tyrosine, glutamate/glutamine, and nicotinate/niacinamide metabolism were involved in the pathogenesis of NP-C1 disease-associated liver dysfunction/damage. 1H NMR-linked metabolomics analysis provides valuable biomarker information regarding hepatic dysfunction or damage in NP-C1 disease.
...
PMID:1H NMR-Linked Metabolomics Analysis of Liver from a Mouse Model of NP-C1 Disease. 2750 74