Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0019270 (hernia)
 15,856 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) is a developmentally regulated bioactive peptide believed to function as a pulmonary growth factor. It is produced by pulmonary neuroendocrine cells, found within the conducting and respiratory epithelium, as isolated cells and in clusters known as neuroepithelial bodies (NEBs). Deficient GRP expression has been reported in pulmonary hypoplasia (PH) associated with oligohydramnios and diaphragmatic hernia. To assess further the role of GRP in maldeveloped lung we reviewed the postmortem records and histologic lung sections, stained with H&E and anti-GRP antiserum, from 11 infants with anencephaly and 11 age-matched controls. Cells immunoreactive for GRP were quantified (isolated versus NEBs) in airways and airspaces per mm2 for a standard area. PH was present in five anencephalic infants. There was no difference in the total number of GRP-positive cells, number of NEBs, size of NEBs, or number of GRP-positive cells in airways or alveoli in either group regardless of lung development. A greater proportion of the GRP-positive cells was present in the airways in anencephalic infants with PH (58%) compared with anencephalic infants without PH (40%) (P = .018). There were no differences when comparing these groups with control infants and no differences in the density of airways in each of these groups. We conclude that deficient GRP expression is not a feature of lung hypoplasia in anencephalic infants. The altered distribution of GRP-positive cells in anencephalic infants with PH may be a reflection of the structural abnormalities or accompanying altered cellular maturity.
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PMID:Pulmonary gastrin-releasing peptide expression in anencephaly. 859 25

The relative abundance of pulmonary neuroendocrine cells synthesizing gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) was estimated for normal fetal lungs and hypoplastic lungs. Percentage of bronchiolar epithelial area staining positively with anti-GRP antiserum was computed for each case using a SAMBA 4000 image analyzer. The majority of hypoplastic lungs (10 of 12 cases) showed markedly diminished GRP immunoreactivity, which appeared to vary with etiology. Six cases of pulmonary hypoplasia associated with renal anomalies, three cases associated with hydrops, and one case of diaphragmatic hernia showed an average fivefold reduction in percentage of GRP immunostaining. A case of hypoplasia associated with Werdnig-Hoffmann disease had GRP immunoreactivity similar to that of controls, and GRP expression was markedly elevated (fivefold) in a case of hypoplasia with omphalocele.
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PMID:Gastrin-releasing peptide in hypoplastic lungs. 902 90