Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0024312 (lymphopenia)
 4,859 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Transient granulocytopenia and lymphopenia may occur in acute alcoholics without splenomegaly, cirrhosis, infection, and megaloblastic anemia due to folate deficiency. The bone marrow in granulocytopenic patients is frequently hypocellular with few mature granulocytes, and the functional marrow granulocyte reserve is reduced. These findings suggest a depressed granulopoietic activity in these patients. The mechanism by which alcohol suppresses granulopoiesis remains unclear. Direct toxicity of alcohol on granulopoietic stem cells and increased individual susceptibility to the toxic effect of alcohol may be important factors. Alcohol also causes functional impairment of granulocytes (adherence, motility, and chemotaxis), macrophages (motility and phagocytosis), and lymphocytes (blastogenic transformation and development of delayed dermal hypersensitivity reaction), probably by perturbation of the cell membrane resulting in an increased intracellular cyclic AMP level.
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PMID:Effects of alcohol on granulocytes and lymphocytes. 737 52

Dietary folate deficiency enhances, whereas folate supplementation suppresses, the development of several cancers. This study investigated the effect of folate deficiency on natural killer cell (NK)-mediated cytotoxicity, which is important in immune surveillance against tumor cells. In Experiment 1, severe folate deficiency was induced in rats by feeding an amino acid-defined diet containing 0 mg folate and 10 g succinylsulfathiazole/kg diet. Control and folate-supplemented rats were fed the same diet containing 2 (basal requirement) and 8 mg folate/kg diet, respectively. Severe folate deficiency at the end of wk 5 was associated with 20% growth retardation, a 60% reduction in lymphocyte counts and significantly impaired NK-mediated cytotoxicity compared with the control and folate-supplemented groups (P < 0.02). The lesser degree of severe folate deficiency achieved by wk 4 was not associated with impaired NK-mediated cytotoxicity. Folate supplementation at 4x the basal requirement did not significantly enhance NK-mediated cytotoxicity at either time point. In Experiment 2, moderate folate deficiency was induced in rats by feeding the same diet without succinylsulfathiazole. NK-mediated cytotoxicity in the moderately folate-deficient rats (without growth retardation or lymphopenia) was not significantly different from that in controls. Although severe folate deficiency may have adverse effects on NK-mediated cytotoxicity, moderate folate deficiency, a degree of depletion associated with an increased risk of several cancers, appears not to affect NK-mediated cytotoxicity in rats. Furthermore, a modest level of folate supplementation above the basal requirement does not enhance NK-mediated cytotoxicity. These data collectively suggest that NK-mediated cytotoxicity is not a likely mechanism by which folate status modulates carcinogenesis.
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PMID:Severe folate deficiency impairs natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity in rats. 1204 59