Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027947 (neutropenia)
 17,527 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We evaluated a 13-month-old boy with cytoplasmic inclusions in hematopoietic cells, transfusion-dependent anemia, splenomegaly, and striking grey skin discoloration. Bright blue inclusions, 1 to 5 microns in diameter, were observed, primarily in the cytoplasm, of 30% to 40% of myeloid cells and in occasional monocytes, megakaryocytes, and lymphocytes on Wright Giemsa-stained bone marrow and blood smears. They occasionally involved the nucleus. The inclusions lacked lysosomes, polysaccharides, or lipids. Ultrastructurally, they lacked limiting membranes and consisted of tightly packed microfilaments averaging 7 nm in diameter, consistent with the size of actin monofilaments. On light microscopy, the inclusions stained with a monoclonal antibody to muscle-specific actin. Inclusion-positive cells contained increased F-actin content and were defective in chemotactic factor-activated actin polymerization; inclusion-negative cells polymerized actin normally. Neutrophil and platelet numbers and functional studies were mildly abnormal. Anemia and skin discoloration resolved spontaneously after 18 months, but the giant inclusions have persisted to the present. We conclude that this child has a previously unreported constellation of clinical and laboratory findings comprising severe anemia, intermittent neutropenia and thrombocytopenia, abnormal neutrophil migration and platelet aggregation, giant inclusions of actin in hematopoietic cells, and grey skin discoloration.
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PMID:Giant actin inclusions in hematopoietic cells associated with transfusion-dependent anemia and grey skin discoloration. 820 94

Tobacco Bright Yellow-2 (BY-2) cells, one of the best characterized cell lines is an attractive expression system for heterologous protein expression. However, the expression of foreign proteins is currently hampered by their low yield, which is partially the result of proteolytic degradation. Human granulocyte colony stimulating factor (hG-CSF) is a hematopoietic cytokine. Recombinant hG-CSF is successfully being used for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia in cancer patients. Here, we describe a simple strategy for producing biologically active hG-CSF in tobacco BY-2 cells, localized in the apoplast of BY-2 cells, as well as targeted to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). ER targeting significantly enhanced recombinant production which scaled to 17.89 mg/l from 4.19 mg/l when expressed in the apoplasts. Southern blotting confirmed the stable integration of hG-CSF in the BY-2 nuclear genome, and the expression of hG-CSF was analysed by Western blotting. Total soluble protein containing hG-CSF isolated from positive calli showed proliferative potential when tested on HL-60 cell lines by MTT assay. We also report the potential of a Fluorescence-activated cell sorting approach for an efficient sorting of the hG-CSF-expressing cell lines, which will enable the generation of homogenous high-producing cell lines.
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PMID:Enhanced heterologous expression of biologically active human granulocyte colony stimulating factor in transgenic tobacco BY-2 cells by localization to endoplasmic reticulum. 2484 52