Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0022716 (Menkes)
 1,057 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The distribution of immunoreactive catecholamine neurons and fibers was investigated in brindled mottled mouse, a murine model of Kinky hair syndrome (KHS), using antisera against tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH). In all mice, including normal littermate controls, a transient increase of TH-immunoreactive neurons (TH-IN) was observed in the cerebral cortex during the second postnatal week. The numbers of TH-IN were more pronounced in hemizygous brindled males (MObr/y). In addition, TH-IN appeared and rapidly increased in number in the striatum of MObr/y after postnatal day 11 (P11). Striatal TH-IN were rarely detected in controls. After cupric chloride (CuCl2) treatment, TH-IN in the striatum of some of the MObr/y mice became less conspicuous. In the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area where TH-IN are normally present, no differences either in the immunostaining of TH-IN or the pattern of TH immunoreactive fibers were detected between MObr/y and controls. In MObr/y, a superficial plexus of DBH immunoreactive fibers was more pronounced than in controls but there were no DBH immunoreactive neurons in the cerebral cortex or striatum in any of the mice examined. Neurochemical analysis revealed a marked decrease in norepinephrine levels and increase of serotonin and its metabolites in the brain in MObr/y. Together, these data suggest that the unusual expression of TH-IN in MObr/y represents perturbations of normal development of catecholamine neurons in this copper deficient mutant mouse.
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PMID:Neurochemical and immunocytochemical studies of catecholamine system in the brindled mouse. 168 2

The role of copper in maintaining normal neurological function has been examined in animals copper-deficient by dietary means, and in the genetic disorders of copper homeostasis -- Menkes' kinky-hair disease in humans and the mottled (Mo) mutants in the mouse. With the exception of the disorder in Mo mice, reduced myelination is a constant feature of these copper diseases but there is otherwise a lack of conformity in the structural defects produced in different species. Dietary copper-deficient animals show a reduction in noradrenaline and dopamine concentrations, together with a depressed tyrosine 3-monooxygenase activity (EC 1.14.16.2). Noradrenaline concentrations are also reduced in brain tissue of Mo mice and this reduction is associated with a decrease in the vivo activity of the copper metalloenzyme, dopamine beta-monooxygenase (EC 1.14.17.1). Many tissues contain potent inhibitors of dopamine beta-monooxygenase activity, and assays of this enzyme have utilized cupric ions to inactivate these inhibitors. The elevated in vitro activities of dopamine beta-monooxygenase obtained for both Mo brain and adrenal tissue may therefore reflect either a reduced inactivation of these endogenous inhibitors in the intact animal or the activation in vitro of apoenzyme. Concentrations of dopamine and tyrosine 3-monooxygenase are unchanged in Mo mice. The reduction in dopamine and tyrosine 3-monooxygenase activity in dietary copper-deficient animals may therefore reflect neuronal loss rather than reduced catalytic activity of the catecholamine biosynthetic pathway. The possible effects of depressed activities of cytochrome c oxidase (EC 1.9.3.1) and superoxide dismutase (EC 1.15.1.1) in the development of neurological dysfunction are also discussed, and attention is drawn to the possible significance of the elevated uptake of neutral amino acids, especially tyrosine and tryptophan, by Mo brain tissue.
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PMID:Copper and neurological function. 690 87