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Query: UMLS:C0022716 (Menkes)
 1,057 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

In Menkes' disease, a severe disturbance of copper handling appears to render copper unavailable for copper-requiring processes. We have measured the activity of lysyl oxidase, the copper-dependent enzyme that initiates the cross-linking of collagen and elastin, in extracts of skin and aorta obtained at autopsy from a patient with unusually marked connective tissue manifestations, and found it to be only 6-12% of normal, thus suggesting a basis for these alterations.
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PMID:Markedly reduced activity of lysyl oxidase in skin and aorta from a patient with Menkes' disease showing unusually severe connective tissue manifestations. 197 62

The authors describe a patient who presented from birth on a severe involvement of connective tissues with pathological fractures, lack of auricular cartilage, hyperlaxity of fingers and cutis laxa with deep folds, all suggestive of derangements of collagen and elastin. Hypothermia at 24 hours of age should have already indicated the possibility of Menkes' syndrome. From the 3rd month on, the patient presents a neurological deterioration and a myoclonic epilepsy which is resistant to treatment. Craniocerebral tomodensitometry revealed, with time, a cerebral atrophy and subdural hematomas. Angiodysplasia of a coronary artery was seen at cardiac echocardiography. Undetectable levels of serum copper and ceruloplasmin, and an increased uptake of copper by fibroblasts in vitro confirmed the diagnosis of Menkes' syndrome. Electron microscopy of a skin biopsy disclosed a desmosomal anomaly in the epidermis. Desmosomes stay apart suggesting an alteration of the interdesmosomal cement.
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PMID:[Menkes disease. Report of a case with pronounced involvement of connective tissues and changes in epidermal desmosomes]. 270 74

Lysyl oxidase activity against both collagen and elastin substrates has been examined in the culture medium of skin fibroblasts derived from unrelated patients with Menkes' syndrome and from control subjects. The medium of three Menkes' fibroblast lines showed 3--30% of the activity present in the medium of control fibroblasts, against a purified collagen substrate. Lysyl oxidase activity in the culture medium of two of the Menkes' fibroblast lines was also examined by using a crude aortic-elastin substrate and was similarly decreased in comparison with that in the medium of control fibroblasts. Lysyl oxidase activity in the medium of a fourth fibroblast line, derived from a foetus with Menkes' syndrome, was 42% of that in the medium of control fibroblasts derived from a 1-day-old baby against a collagen substrate, and 26% of that in control fibroblast medium against an elastin substrate. The copper content of the cell layers of the Menkes' fibroblast cultures was elevated in comparison with normal fibroblast cultures, as has previously been reported to be characteristic of such cells. It is suggested that the decrease in lysyl oxidase activity would help to explain the connective tissue defects observed in Menkes' syndrome, and that this reduction, in conjunction with the elevated concentrations of cellular copper, would support the hypothesis that a functional intracellular copper deficiency exists in Menkes' syndrome.
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PMID:Reduced lysyl oxidase activity in skin fibroblasts from patients with Menkes' syndrome. 611 84

Elastic fibers form a network that contributes to the elasticity and resilience of tissues such as the skin. Histopathologic and ultrastructural abnormalities in the elastic fibers have been observed in several diseases of the skin and other tissues. Recent cloning of several genes involved in elastic fiber architecture has lead to the approach of the study of elastic fiber genodermatoses through molecular analysis. However, in genodermatoses, such as pseudoxanthoma elasticum, many of the genes encoding elastic fiber components have been excluded by genetic linkage analysis. In recent years, mutations in several of the genes encoding elastic fiber proteins have been demonstrated in other diseases. These include mutations in the fibrillin 1 gene in the Marfan syndrome, and genetic linkage of congenital contractural arachnodactyly to fibrillin 2, and, most recently, demonstration of abnormalities in the Menkes syndrome gene in X-linked cutis laxa. The first disorders to involve mutations in the elastin gene itself are, surprisingly, cardiovascular and neurobehavioral disorders, such as supravalvular aortic stenosis and Williams syndrome. These findings suggest that additional, as yet undiscovered, components of the elastic fiber network in the skin may hold the key to unraveling the molecular basis of the elastin-related genodermatoses.
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PMID:Molecular pathology of the elastic fibers. 796 85

Ultrastructural studies of the skin and aorta of a patient with Menkes disease, an X-linked recessive disorder of copper metabolism, are described. Dermal thickness was normal, while dermal collagen fibrils exhibited a heterogeneous size range, with a mean diameter smaller than normal. Long-spacing collagen was often observed near fibroblasts, the plasma membranes of which were decorated by aggregates of interwoven filaments. Dermal elastin fibers were scarce and consisted of thin strands of amorphous elastin associated with numerous microfibrils. In the aorta, the amount of collagen was normal, although the fibrils displayed a broader range of diameters than normal, with a slightly smaller mean. Elastin fibers showed considerable disruption, appearing fragmented and wider than normal, and displaying irregular contours. The inclusion of cationic dyes during tissue fixation gave rise to numerous electron-dense precipitates within the elastin fibers, suggesting the presence there of glycosaminoglycans or proteoglycans, among which unsulfated and sulfated chondroitins were demonstrated by immunoelectron microscopy to be prominent. Heparan sulfate, observed to be a constituent of normal elastin fibers, was much reduced in amount. Elastin was also found associated with glycosaminoglycans in the soluble matrix of the aortic wall.
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PMID:Ultrastructural analysis of skin and aorta from a patient with Menkes disease. 799 78

Menkes syndrome in humans is an X-linked disorder characterized in part by abnormal copper transport, cellular copper sequestration, and defective crosslinking of collagen and elastin. A decrease in the functional activity of lysyl oxidase, a cuproenzyme, is thought in part to be responsible for the decreased crosslinking of collagen and elastin. It has also been suggested that low levels of lysyl oxidase activity may occur secondarily to disturbances in intracellular copper translocation and consequently impaired incorporation of copper into lysyl oxidase. Herein, we examine the expression and accumulation of selected extracellular matrix proteins in fibroblasts from a Menkes patient, as well as fibroblasts from the tortoiseshell (MoTo/y) mouse. The MoTo mutation is an allele of the mottled (Mo) locus, which is considered to be a murine analog of the human Menkes locus. In both Menkes and tortoiseshell fibroblasts, levels of lysyl oxidase mRNA transcripts were less than 15% of levels for corresponding controls. The level of elastin mRNA transcripts was also markedly lower in both cell lines in comparison to controls. In contrast, the levels of procollagen Type I mRNA were similar or enhanced in Menkes and MoTo/y fibroblasts compared to their respective controls. Consequently, we conclude that the connective tissue defects associated with Menkes syndrome and those occurring in mottled mouse mutants involve more than abnormal copper utilization in the formation of lysyl oxidase holoenzyme. Based on the present studies in cell culture, the production of essential enzymes and matrix proteins, such as lysyl oxidase and elastin, appear to be altered at the level of transcription or mRNA turnover.
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PMID:Expression and accumulation of lysyl oxidase, elastin, and type I procollagen in human Menkes and mottled mouse fibroblasts. 809 78

The Menkes syndrome and the occipital horn syndrome are two X-linked recessively inherited disorders characterized by abnormalities in copper metabolism. These abnormalities are associated with a reduction in the activity of lysyl oxidase (EC 1.4.3.13), an extracellular copper enzyme that initiates the crosslinking of collagens and elastin. We report here that the amount of lysyl oxidase mRNA, as studied by Northern blotting, and the number of lysyl oxidase mRNA molecules per picogram of RNA, as determined by a quantitative PCR method, were decreased in three cultured skin fibroblast lines from patients with the Menkes syndrome and two from patients with the occipital horn syndrome compared with four control cell lines. The decreased lysyl oxidase activity found in these disorders thus appears to be a least in part due to a pretranslational mechanism. No decrease was found in the number of the beta-actin mRNA molecules in the Menkes cell lines, but rather a slight increase, whereas a decrease was found in these molecules in the occipital horn cell lines. An additional abnormality found in the Menkes cell lines was a significant increase in the number of mRNA molecules for type III procollagen in two of the three cell lines investigated. The present and previous data indicate that the Menkes syndrome may involve several abnormalities in the expression of genes for connective tissue proteins.
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PMID:Expression of mRNAs for lysyl oxidase and type III procollagen in cultured fibroblasts from patients with the Menkes and occipital horn syndromes as determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. 863 17

Type IX of the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (E-D IX) and the Menkes syndrome are X-linked recessively inherited disorders characterized by abnormalities in copper metabolism. These abnormalities are associated with a severe reduction in the activity of lysyl oxidase, the extracellular copper enzyme that initiates crosslinking of collagens and elastin. No increase in this deficient enzyme activity was obtained when culture media from fibroblasts of patients with E-D IX or the Menkes syndrome were incubated with copper under various conditions in vitro. A distinct, although small, increase in lysyl oxidase activity was obtained, however, when copper-supplemented media were used during culturing of the fibroblasts, although even under these conditions, the enzyme activity in the media from the affected cells remained markedly below that of the controls. Immunoprecipitation, dot-blotting, and immunoperoxidase staining experiments with antisera to human lysyl oxidase indicated that fibroblasts from patients with E-D IX or the Menkes syndrome do not secrete into their medium, or contain inside the cell, any significant amounts of a copper-deficient, catalytically inactive lysyl oxidase protein. These findings appear to be consistent with the hypothesis that synthesis of the lysyl oxidase protein itself is impaired. The possibility is not excluded, however, that a copper-deficient enzyme protein may be synthesized in normal amounts but become degraded very rapidly inside the cell. The failure to obtain any large increase in the deficient lysyl oxidase activity upon various forms of copper administration suggests that it may not be possible to obtain any significant improvement in the connective tissue manifestations of these disorders by copper therapy.
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PMID:Type IX Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and Menkes syndrome: the decrease in lysyl oxidase activity is associated with a corresponding deficiency in the enzyme protein. 955 68

Copper is a trace element, important for the function of many cellular enzymes. Copper ions can adopt distinct redox states oxidized Cu(II) or reduced (I), allowing the metal to play a pivotal role in cell physiology as a catalytic cofactor in the redox chemistry of enzymes, mitochondrial respiration, iron absorption, free radical scavenging and elastin cross-linking. If present in excess, free copper ions can cause damage to cellular components and a delicate balance between the uptake and efflux of copper ions determines the amount of cellular copper. In biological systems, copper homeostasis has been characterized at the molecular level. It is coordinated by several proteins such as glutathione, metallothionein, Cu-transporting P-type ATPases, Menkes and Wilson proteins and by cytoplasmic transport proteins called copper chaperones to ensure that it is delivered to specific subcellular compartments and thereby to copper-requiring proteins.
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PMID:Trace elements in human physiology and pathology. Copper. 1465 64

Menkes disease is an X-linked recessive disorder of copper transport characterized by neurological deterioration, connective tissue, and vascular defects, abnormal hair, and death in early childhood. We report on a patient with Menkes disease in whom severe diffuse emphysema caused respiratory failure and death at 14 months of age. He had severe growth and developmental delays and other typical clinical manifestations of Menkes disease. He developed respiratory problems requiring continuous supplemental oxygen and a progressively enlarging soft tissue mass appeared on the neck. Imaging studies revealed cystic spaces in multiple lobes of the lung consistent with bullous emphysema. The neck mass was determined to be an internal jugular venous aneurysm. At autopsy, extensive emphysematous change was evident. Post-mortem barium injections of the pulmonary arterial system revealed marked dilatation and tortuosity of the preacinar pulmonary arteries and reduced numbers of intra-acinar arteries. Severe emphysema, presumably caused by abnormal elastin due to deficiency of the copper-dependent enzyme lysyl oxidase, may represent an underestimated clinical complication of Menkes disease and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of chronic respiratory disease in these patients.
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PMID:Severe bilateral panlobular emphysema and pulmonary arterial hypoplasia: unusual manifestations of Menkes disease. 1627 98


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