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)

Copper concentration, intracellular copper distribution, and inducibility of metallothionein-like metal-binding protein (MLP) by copper or cadmium addition to culture medium were compared among three types of skin fibroblasts derived from patients with Menkes' disease and Wilson's disease, both exhibiting genetic defects of copper metabolism, and from normal subjects (control). Skin fibroblasts were cultivated in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum and antibiotics in 5% CO2 at 37 degrees C. Cells were harvested with rubber-policeman, washed twice with phosphate-buffered saline, pH 7.2, suspended in deionized water, and homogenized. The homogenate from each cell type was used to determine the concentration of copper by atomic absorption spectrophotometry employing graphite-rod atomizer after lyophilization, ashing in HNO3, and coprecipitation with zirconium. Intracellular copper concentration was elevated in Menkes' cells (420 ng Cu/mg of protein) and Wilson's cells (217 ng Cu/mg of protein) than in control cells (90.0 ng Cu/mg of protein), although one of four Wilson's strains showed normal copper level (70.5 ng Cu/mg of protein). Cytosol copper concentration was 5.8-fold higher in Menkes' cells but only 1.3-fold in Wilson's cells than in control cells, and cytosol copper accounted for only 35% of total intracellular copper in Wilson's cells as compared with 68% and 52% in Menkes' and control cells, respectively. These suggest that accumulated copper in each cell type is differently distributed within cells; in Menkes' cells exclusively into cytosol, but in Wilson's cells into particulates rather than cytosol. Elution profiles from Sephadex G-75 columns indicated that most of copper had bound to MLP in Menkes' cells, though no Cu-MLP was detectable in Wilson's or control cells under these experimental conditions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:[Copper level and metallothionein-like Cu-binding protein in cultured skin fibroblasts from patients with Menkes' disease and Wilson's disease]. 652 19

Menkes' kinky hair syndrome is a lethal X-linked disorder marked by tissue-specific increases in copper content. An animal model of kinky hair syndrome is provided by mice mutant at the X-linked mottled locus. The basic defect is unknown. In order to discriminate among potential etiologies, we asked whether the expression of the mottled mutation causes abnormalities in the metabolism of trace metals other than copper in hemizygous mottled (blotchy) cultured skin fibroblasts, and whether we can differentiate mutant and normal cells according to their response to metal inducers of metallothionein. Blotchy fibroblasts accumulated up to 12 times more 64Cu than control (littermate) cells, over time and over a range of 64Cu concentrations. A saturable high affinity component to 64Cu accumulation over a fixed time interval was revealed in these studies. While 64Cu uptake kinetics were indistinguishable in mutant and control cells, the patterns of 64Cu exit differed. In both cell types, the rate of release of a rapidly exchangeable fraction of newly acquired 64Cu was similar. However, in mutant cells, a larger fraction of recently accumulated 64Cu is retained. In contrast to the results for 64Cu, accumulation and exit of 65Zn and 109Cd were not distinguishable in mutants and controls. With exposure to either a strong (cadmium) or weaker (zinc) inducer of metallothionein, 64Cu accumulation was increased in normal cells, while there was no change from the already elevated level of 64Cu accumulation in blotchy cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Trace metal metabolism in cultured skin fibroblasts of the mottled mouse: response to metallothionein inducers. 654 92

We have assigned the structural gene (Mt-1) coding for the murine metal-binding protein metallothionein I (MT-1) to mouse chromosome 8 by using a cloned DNA probe for mouse Mt-1 in combination with a panel of Chinese hamster-mouse somatic cell hybrid clones segregating mouse chromosomes. Analysis of hybrid cell extracts for the presence of mouse Mt-1 or MT-1 mRNA revealed concordant segregation of Mt-1 with mouse glutathione reductase, an enzyme marker for mouse chromosome 8, but discordant segregation with enzyme markers for 14 other mouse chromosomes. Karyotype analyses of seven informative hybrid clones confirmed the assignment of mouse Mt-1 to chromosome 8. Menkes' disease in man and the mottled mutation (Mo) in the mouse, which provides an animal model of Menkes' disease, are both X-linked degenerative neurologic disorders involving abnormal copper metabolism and increased levels of intracellular metallothionein protein. Fibroblasts from Mo male mice have increased amounts of MT-1 mRNA, suggesting that both Mo and Menkes' disease may be due to a metallothionein gene mutation. However, our assignment of Mt-1 to mouse chromosome 8, rather than the X chromosome, demonstrates that a mutation in mouse Mt-1 or a closely linked regulatory gene is not the primary defect in Mo, and implies that a metallothionein gene mutation is not the genetic defect in human Menkes' disease.
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PMID:The metallothionein-I gene maps to mouse chromosome 8: implications for human Menkes' disease. 668 8

Human metallothioneins are encoded by a complex multigene family. The chromosomal location of these genes has been determined by gel transfer hybridization analysis of the DNA from human-rodent cell hybrids. Chromosome 16 contains a cluster of metallothionein sequences, including two functional metallothionein I genes and a functional metallothionein II gene. The remaining sequences, including a processed pseudogene, are dispersed to at least four other autosomes. The absence of metallothionein sequences from the X chromosome indicates that Menkes' disease, an X-linked disorder of copper metabolism, affects metallothionein expression by a trans-acting mechanism.
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PMID:Chromosomal location of human metallothionein genes: implications for Menkes' disease. 671 35

Proteins of approximately 10,000 daltons (presumably metallothionein) and greater than 75,000 daltons bound 64Cu when this metal was added to fibroblast lysates. Treatment with either 2-mercaptoethanol or the disodium salt of ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid demonstrated that the high molecular weight copper-binding proteins in lysates prepared from both normal and Menkes fibroblasts exhibited a relatively low affinity for copper compared to the 10,000 dalton protein(s). No difference was detected in the affinity of the low molecular weight protein(s) of normal and Menkes fibroblast lysates for copper. The amount of 64Cu bound to the 10,000 dalton protein(s), however, was approximately two to three times greater in lysates prepared from Menkes fibroblasts than from normal fibroblasts. Mixing experiments indicated that the increased binding of 64Cu to the 10,000 dalton protein(s) in lysates of Menkes fibroblasts did not result from the deficiency of a factor that effects the cleavage of copper from this protein(s), from the presence of a soluble inhibitor, or from the lack of an activator. In addition, the use of lysates, rather than whole cells, demonstrated that the observed differences in copper binding between the normal and the Menkes fibroblasts were not caused by an abnormality in the membrane transport of copper in the mutant cells. Thus the findings suggest that the increased accumulation and the reduced efflux of copper previously observed in cultured Menkes fibroblasts result either from an increased amount of the 10,000 dalton copper-binding protein(s) or from an increased capacity of this molecule(s) for copper.
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PMID:Studies of the copper-binding proteins in Menkes and normal cultured skin fibroblast lysates. 678 68

This paper reports the results of a multielement analysis of postmortem samples of Menkes patients, of which one was untreated and two had been treated for various lengths of time with intramuscular injections of copper-EDTA. The findings have been compared with data from a Menkes fetus and from controls. The results confirm that copper accumulates in various tissues and demonstrate a further increase in copper levels as a result of the treatment with copper-EDTA. Although no clinical improvement was observed, the levels of some copper-containing enzymes normalized during the copper-therapy. Furthermore, in agreement with the identification of the copper-binding protein in the kidney as metallothionein, it was found that not only copper, but also zinc, cadmium, and mercury are trapped in this tissue. A low copper concentration in the brain was also found in a Menkes fetus, indicating that brain damage might already have occurred before birth. Speculation Until recently, Menkes' disease was considered to be due to copper deficiency. However, the symptoms are more typical of a storage disease in which copper is irreversibly trapped in some tissues, in particular in the kidneys, by metallothionein. This abnormal storage pattern gives rise to copper deficiency elsewhere in the organism, particularly in the brain where it may cause irreversible damage in the foetus. Parenteral administration of copper does not lead to clinical improvement. The only "therapy" that seems feasible at present is tracing the carriers of the disease and advising abortion when prenatal diagnosis indicates a male fetus carrying the disease.
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PMID:Trace element studies in three patients and a fetus with Menkes' disease. Effect of copper therapy. 678 98

Copper-binding proteins in the tissues from the patients with Menkes' kinky hair disease were examined by gel filtration on a Sephadex G-75 column. In the kidney, major part of copper was found to bind to low molecular weight protein, which corresponded chromatographically to metallothionein. This copper-binding protein contained a large amount of copper and a small amount of zinc. Cu: Zn ratio of this protein was different from that of metallothionein found in the fetal liver. In the liver of the same patient, however, there was no increase of copper bound to this protein.
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PMID:Copper-binding proteins in the liver and kidney from the patients with Menkes' kinky hair disease. 683 61

Menkes' syndrome is an X-linked recessive multisystem disease which is usually fatal prior to 5 years of age. Though originally felt to be a disorder of copper deficiency, it now appears to be a copper storage disease, with the observed defects resulting from inappropriate systemic copper distribution. Disorders in the metabolism of metallothionein, a metalloprotein involved in cellular copper transport, may be the primary defect in this syndrome. This review summarizes the relevant clinical and pathologic findings seen in this condition to date. It also describes some of the abnormalities in the metabolism of copper and metallothionein in these infants.
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PMID:Menkes' syndrome: an updated review. 688 97

Copper is an essential dietary component, being the coenzyme of many enzymes with oxidase activity, e.g. ceruloplasmin, superoxide dismutase, monoamine oxidase, etc. The metabolism of copper is complex and imperfectly known. Active transport of copper through the intestinal epithelial cells involves metallothionein, a protein rich in sulfhydryl groups which also binds the copper in excess and probably prevents absorption in toxic amounts. In hepatocytes a metallothionein facilitates absorption by a similar mechanism and regulates copper distribution in the liver: incorporation in an apoceruloplasmin, storage and synthesis of copper-dependent enzymes. Metallothioneins and ceruloplasmin are essential to adequate copper homeostasis. Apart from genetic disorders, diseases involving copper usually result from hypercupraemia of varied origin. Wilson's disease and Menkes' disease, although clinically and pathogenetically different, are both marked by low ceruloplasmin and copper serum levels. The excessive liver retention of copper in Wilson's disease might be due to increased avidity of hepatic metallothioneins for copper and decreased biliary excretion through lysosomal dysfunction. Menkes' disease might be due to low avidity of intestinal and hepatic metallothioneins for copper. The basic biochemical defect responsible for these two hereditary conditions has not yet been fully elucidated.
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PMID:[Copper pathology (author's transl)]. 705 50

A metallothionein-like protein (MTP) is synthesized in normal diploid human skin fibroblasts cultured in Zn- or Cu-supplemented medium. Synthesis of MTP is not detected in cells cultured without metal supplementation of complete tissue-culture medium. Cultured fibroblasts from patients with Menkes' disease accumulate excess Cu which chromatographs both with high-molecular-weight protein(s) and with a Cu-MTP. Under normal culture conditions, the Menkes' MTP incorporates [35S]-cystine, but not appreciable amounts of 65Zn. However, Menkes fibroblasts retain the ability to incorporate 65Zn into MTP in response to Zn supplementation of the medium. The results do not support the idea that Menkes' disease results from a failure of Cu to bind to MTP, but rather that an elevated intracellular Cu concentration in Menkes' disease fibroblasts leads to association of excess Cu with high-molecular-weight protein, stimulating synthesis of a Cu-binding MTP.
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PMID:Synthesis of a metallothionein-like protein in cultured human skin fibroblasts: relation to abnormal copper distribution in Menkes' disease. 721 18


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