Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0032273 (pneumoconiosis)
 1,578 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Altered permeability of the gut is a well-described feature in Crohn's disease. Because of pathologic similarities between Crohn's disease and sarcoidosis, we initiated this study to evaluate the permeability of the gut mucosal lining in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis. A group of 18 patients with biopsy-proven pulmonary sarcoidosis (active n = 8, inactive n = 10) were included in the study. Control groups included 22 patients with Crohn's disease (active n = 12, inactive n = 10), nine untreated patients with recent pulmonary tuberculosis, six patients with coal worker's pneumoconiosis (CWP), eight patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and 16 healthy subjects. All were nonsmokers. The 24-h urinary excretion of 100 microCi 51Cr-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (51Cr-EDTA) was used to test the intestinal permeability (IP). As previously demonstrated, patients with active Crohn's disease demonstrated a dramatic increase in IP (7.7 +/- 1.4%) that was clearly reduced in inactive CD (2.34 +/- 0.54%). Patients with active pulmonary sarcoidosis exhibited a marked increased IP to 51Cr-EDTA (4 +/- 0.54%), which was not found in patients with inactive sarcoidosis (1.6 +/- 0.17%). IP was normal in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (1.03 +/- 0.25%), CWP (2.1 +/- 0.54%), and IPF (1.9 +/- 0.33%) and did not differ from the control group (1.76 +/- 0.23%). In addition, in 6 patients with active pulmonary sarcoidosis, the concentrations of albumin and hyaluronan were measured in jejunal perfusion fluid and compared with those obtained from 10 patients with active Crohn's disease and 16 control subjects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Increased intestinal permeability in active pulmonary sarcoidosis. 159 16

Serum immunoglobulin (Ig) levels were measured in 788 coalworkers and 121 nonmining controls for comparison with the radiological category of pneumoconiosis after taking into account age and smoking habit. In addition a simple assessment of humoral immune competence was made by estimating the titre of serum antibody against the common gut commensal Escherichia coli. Smoking was found to depress serum IgA and IgM whilst levels of IgG and IgA increased slightly with age. Men with radiological signs of coalworkers pneumoconiosis (CWP) had significantly raised levels of IgA and IgG with increasing pneumoconiosis category. Even coalworkers with less than category 1 simple pneumoconiosis had raised levels of IgA, suggesting that increased production of this immunoglobulin occurs before radiologically identifiable pathological changes have occurred in the lung tissue. No association between reduced humoral immune competence and radiological category of pneumoconiosis was found. Whether high Ig levels in men exposed to coal dust are merely a passive response to dusted lung tissue or whether they indicate that an immunological process is important in the development of pneumoconiotic lesions remains uncertain.
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PMID:Serum immunoglobulin levels and humoral immune competence in coalworkers. 639 58

It has been a big puzzle as why the inflammation of ulcerative colitis (UC) is limited to the mucosa, while in Crohn's disease (CD) the inflammation is transmural and can be seen in all layers of the gut. Here, I give a tentative explanation extended from the unified hypothesis I proposed on the etiology of inflammatory bowel disease. This hypothesis suggested that both UC and CD are caused by weakening of the gut barrier due to damage of the protective mucus layer and the underlying tissue by the poorly inactivated digestive proteases resulting from a reduction of gut bacteria by dietary chemicals like saccharin and sucralose. However, the large amounts of bacteria in the colon make the recruitment of neutrophils and formation of crypt abscess the main manifestation of UC, while the infiltration of antigens and dietary particles in the small and large intestine mainly cause the recruitment of macrophages and formation of granulomas as the main manifestations in CD. The fast reacting and short life span of neutrophils make the fight and damage limited to the surface of the mucosa. In contrast, the long life span and constant movement of macrophages may bring the harmful agents deep into the tissue. Therefore, the pathogenesis of UC may be more like bacterial pneumonia, while CD may be more like pneumoconiosis or tuberculosis of the lung.
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PMID:Why is damage limited to the mucosa in ulcerative colitis but transmural in Crohn's disease? 2394 90