Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027960 (mole)
 21,279 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The ability to induce alcoholic cardiomyopathy has been tested in a variety of animal species. Myocardial alterations consistent with subclinical heart disease have been produced in many of these studies through a direct effect of ethanol or its metabolites upon the heart or a neurohumoral mechanism. In the rat most studies have, however, failed to finding diminished contractility in the basal state. In long-term animals the acute left ventricular responses to isoproterenol and calcium as well as pacing were reduced. Long-term studies in mongrel dogs fed 36 per cent of calories as ethanol produced an early decrease in left ventricular diastolic compliance related to interstitial collagen accumulation. Diminished contractility developed by four years. In addition to the morphologic evidence of distorted sarcoplasmic reticulum, in vitro experiments suggest important acute effects. Each mole of ethanol is bound tightly to each mole of protein comprising the Ca-ATPase pump, which is inhibited. Impaired uptake and binding of calcium by the sarcoplasmic reticulum has been observed in chronic alcohol models at one to two day intervals following the last exposure to ethanol. In addition, the flux of calcium ion does not appear normal in terms of access to contractile protein, where the calcium regulated inhibition of the troponin interaction with myosin is impaired. Experimental studies in a canine model of alcoholism revealed that the ventricular fibrillation threshold was moderately reduced in the basal state after 18 months and was diminished further after acute exposure.
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PMID:Experimental models for studying the effects of ethanol on the myocardium. 331 64

Human blood platelets were subjected to osmotic shock, brief sonication, pressure homogenization, or treatment with adenosine diphosphate (ADP). These procedures demonstrated an abundance of cytoplasmic microfibrils. The fibrils resembled those found on electron microscopy of partially purified thrombosthenin, the actomyosin-like protein isolated from platelets, and they also appeared to resemble the myofilaments of smooth muscle. Similar fibrils were not found in leukocytes studied under identical conditions. Treatment with colchicine (2 x 10(-5) mole/liter) resulted in the disappearance of microtubules but did not affect the morphology of the microfibrils or interfere with platelet-dependent clot retraction. Thus, microfibrils rather than microtubules may represent the morphologic counterpart of the contractile protein. Brief osmotic shock at low temperature or treatment with 10(-4) M ADP caused the marginal band of microtubules to be replaced by a bundle of intertwining microfibrils. The apparent inter-conversion of microtubules and microfibrils under a variety of conditions led to the hypothesis that fibrils and tubules consist of similar subunits whose degree of polymerization might be dependent on local cytoplasmic forces. Furthermore, on the basis of these observations, it is postulated that the contractile properties of the cells may be vested in the microfibrils, whereas the tubules may serve to maintain the highly asymmetric shape characteristic of circulating and irreversibly aggregated platelets.
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PMID:Microfibrils of blood platelets: their relationship TO MICROTUBULES AND THE CONTRACTILE PROTEIN. 576 19

The contractile protein actin contains one mole of firmly bound nucleotide and a number of divalent cations bound with different affinities. During recent years evidence for a second nucleotide interacting site on actin has been reported. Therefore, a specific search for the presence of a second nucleotide-interacting site on actin was undertaken. For this purpose G- and F-actin or actin in complex with deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) was passed over ADP-agarose which was found to retain all three forms of actin. Nucleotide bound to the high affinity site of actin did not exchange during passage and retention to agarose-immobilized ADP, thus indicating the presence of a second nucleotide interacting site. This site was found to be equally accessible in G- and F-actin and in the actin-DNase I complex, whereas DNase I alone passed unretained through this column. A number of nucleotides and phosphorylated compounds were tested for their ability to compete with immobilized ADP for actin interaction. It was found that all forms of actin are liberated only by high concentrations (5mM) of ADP, ATP and NADH, by 1mM CTP and ITP, and by high salt concentrations (150mM NaCl). Since it was found that EDTA- and heat-treated actin were also retained on ADP-agarose, we conclude that this second nucleotide interacting site is of limited specificity, low affinity, and not dependent on the native configuration of actin. It exhibits characteristics of an unspecific, polyanionic site, but may represent the low affinity phosphate binding site.
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PMID:Evidence that the presumptive second nucleotide interacting site on actin is of low specificity and affinity. 848 39