Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0025362 (mental retardation)
 15,878 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Recently numerous reports show deleterious effects of alcohol abuse on pregnant women giving their children a high risk of stillbirth and/or several developmental abnormalities and mental retardation, i.e. the Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). In the present study, the effects of maternal alcohol consumption on lipid metabolism in the litter liver were investigated in rats. These rats showed not only quite less lipid deposition in spite of large amount of alcohol consumption up to adulthood, but also showed increased FFA oxidation in the livers. In addition, increased level of very low density lipoprotein and hypoglucagonemia were found. 40 micrograms/kg of glucagon which is known as an inhibitory factor of apoprotein production in the liver, was injected for 2 weeks into the rat tail vein and resulted in apparent fatty liver and hypolipoproteinemia. Norepinephrine injection (1 mg/kg) caused plasma glucagon to be depressed in the rat as compared with adult alcohol rats. Plasma cyclic AMP response to glucagon was also depressed in these rats. From these results, it is suggested that the deranged glucagon secretion from the pancreas and lowered glucagon-induced cyclic AMP response would relate to the abnormal lipoprotein metabolism in the rat.
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PMID:[Experimental studies on lipoprotein metabolism in rats reared with liquid alcohol diet from the fetal life]. 298 81

Platelet 3H-imipramine (3H-IMI) binding and platelet sulfotransferase (ST) activity, taken as markers of the serotonin (5-HT) and sulfated neurotransmitters (tyramine, dopamine, serotonin, noradrenaline), respectively, were evaluated in 14 severely aggressive subjects institutionalized since childhood for mental retardation and in an equal number of healthy controls. The results showed the presence of a lower number of 3H-IMI binding sites and a higher ST activity in the patients as compared with controls. These data provide supporting evidence for the hypothesis of an abnormality of the 5-HT system and suggest possible dysfunctions of dopamine and sulfated amines in aggressive behavior, at least as reflected by platelet markers.
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PMID:Platelet abnormalities in aggressive subjects with mental deficiency. 882 Jan 76

Aspartate (ASP), glutamate (GLU), noradrenaline (NA), dopamine (DA) and its acidic metabolites DOPAC and HVA, serotonin (5-HT) and its metabolite 5-HIAA were simultaneously investigated in post-mortem tissue samples from right parahippocampal gyrus (temporal cortex) and frontal cortical pole (frontal cortex) of adults with Down syndrome (DS), and of neurologically healthy controls by use of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In parahippocampal gyrus, ASP, GLU, NA, DOPAC and 5-HT levels were significantly decreased in patients with DS, compared to levels found in control subjects (approximately 50%). No significant changes were observed in frontal pole. ASP and GLU levels were significantly lower in parahippocampal gyrus than in frontal pole of DS, a regional distribution that could not be observed in control subjects. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that the temporal cortex would be more affected than the frontal cortex in adult patients with DS, a finding in line with reports showing a marked hypometabolism and extensive cell loss in temporal cortex of DS, and with those showing that parahippocampal gyrus abnormality may correlate with the extent of mental retardation affecting this type of patients.
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PMID:Excitatory amino acids and monoamines in parahippocampal gyrus and frontal cortical pole of adults with Down syndrome. 909 40