Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0034067 (emphysema)
 11,506 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The macroscopic findings of 2385 autopsy protocolls of 70-102 year-old males and females were analysed for frequency and functional significance of diseases. 1. Severe coronary arteriosclerosis was found up to 60% of the cases, with increasing frequency in higher age groups. However decrease of acute myocardial necrosis was stated including the highest age group. 2. The mean values of heart weights decrease in the highest age groups. 3. While the frequency of arteriosclerosis in the cerebral arteries increases the frequency of ischemic lesions of the brain decreases. 4. Benign hyperplasia of the prostate is found in 85% of the cases. 5. 80% of the patients had severe substantial chronic pulmonary emphysema and acute tracheobronchitis. These pulmonary lesions are supposed to be the functionally most important disease in patients of old age.
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PMID:[Pathological-anatomical findings in 70-102 years old Caucasians (author's transl)]. 6 3

Analysis of 1385 autopsies of 80-102 year-old patients was performed to investigate the frequency of simultaneous occurence of the following functionally pertinent diseases in one organism (polypathia): Severe aortic, coronary and cerebral arteriosclerosis, chronic pulmonary emphysema, contracted kidneys, fractures of the femur and malignant tumors. 80% of all patients of both sexes suffered from 2-4 of the above diseases. Even in the highest age group, however, 5 and more of the above diseases were very rarely developed. Patients with none of the above diagnoses were almost never encountered. The "polypathia" was stated also in patients who died by suicide or accident.
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PMID:[The occurence of multiple diseases in high-aged patients (author's transl)]. 100 66

During pathologies such as arteriosclerosis and emphysema, degradation of elastin by elastases occurs and elastin peptides are produced. In order to evaluate elastin degradation, measurements of elastin peptide concentration in human blood were carried out. According to elastin peptides used for obtention of antibodies and for ELISA, the measured values are different. Elastin peptides have several biological effects: they are chemotactic, modify ion fluxes and several intracellular mechanisms.
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PMID:[Elastin and arteriosclerosis: determination and characterization of elastin peptides in blood]. 130 Dec 21

The degradation of elastin during various pathological processes such as emphysema or arteriosclerosis was demonstrated by several investigators. In the present work, we adapted an ELISA technique for the determination of elastin peptide (EP) levels in human sera and plasma, in healthy and arteriosclerotic subjects. This test makes use of human aorta elastin hydrolyzed by a chemical procedure (kappa-elastin) instead of EP produced by pancreatic or leukocyte elastase. Polyclonal antibodies to this antigen were obtained in rabbits. The indirect ELISA procedure is sensitive, specific and reproducible. No correlation could be demonstrated between EP level and anti-EP antibody concentration of IgG or IgM types determined in the same serum samples. These antibodies did not interfere with EP determinations. EP concentration did not change with age in control subjects. In obliterative arteriosclerosis of the legs and in type IIb hyperlipoproteinemia, EP levels showed a marked increase, while in hypertension, ischemic heart disease and diabetes mellitus, the increase was moderate. In stroke, only slight changes were observed. In type IV hyperlipoproteinemia, EP levels were lower than in controls.
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PMID:Determination of elastin peptides in normal and arteriosclerotic human sera by ELISA. 213 61

The state of health, with use of precise epidemiological criteria, of 232 inhabitants of villages located in the protective zone of Nowa Huta Steel-Mill was estimated. The reference group consisted of 137 inhabitants of Tokarnia village, matched with sex, age and occupation. Examinations were performed in the standard clinical conditions, including uniform set of criteria used to establish diagnosis for each subject of examination. It was found that the most important threat for their health were cardiovascular and/or respiratory tract diseases. Among diagnosed illnesses the most important place was occupied by arteriosclerosis in both sexes, arterial hypertension among women and chronic bronchitis as well as emphysema of lungs in men. Inhabitants of the protective zone had generally higher incidence of above mentioned diseases than inhabitants of Tokarnia.
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PMID:[Evaluation of health status in inhabitants of the protected zone near a steel mill. I. Incidence of certain diseases]. 213 80

Elastin in the most resistant fibrous protein of the organisms. Its degradation is catalysed by proteases designated as elastases. Elastic fibers appeared during phylogenesis at the level of the first Vertebrates and rendered possible the emergence of efficient circulatory and respiratory systems which were necessary for the development of the higher Vertebrates. Several pathological conditions, mostly age-dependent, are accompanied by the degradation of elastic fibers or their alteration due to increasing association with lipids and calcium salts. Several proteases (endopeptidases) of cellular origin were described over the last years, especially those of PMN leukocytes, platelets, monocytes-macrophages, smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts. Although less active on fibrous elastin than pancreatic elastase, these enzymes may well play an important role in the development of age-dependent pathologies such as athero-arteriosclerosis and emphysema. The involvement of cellular elastases in these pathologies is discussed in some detail. The age-dependent increase, both in vivo and in vitro of the elastase activity of fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells appears to play an important role in the modifications of cell behaviour observed in the above pathologies.
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PMID:[Proteases of the elastase type]. 306 1

Activated granulocytes have been implicated in mediating pulmonary endothelial damage in the Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome. In another lung disease, emphysema, pulmonary granulocytes (PMNs) are thought to be doubly responsible for lung dissolution: they release potent proteolytic enzymes including elastase, and they generate reactive oxygen species that oxidize a reactive site methionine group in alpha-1-protease inhibitor (alpha-1-PI) rendering it, in turn, impotent as an anti-elastase. This suggested an analogous scenario for pulmonary vascular damage: namely, undefended PMN elastase might also mediate endothelial injury. Our strategy to prove this notion used 51chromium-labeled human endothelial cells exposed to intact PMN or to enucleate "neutroplasts." The latter are elastase-free cytoplasmic blebs derived from PMN. When activated, both PMN and neutroplasts generate similar amounts of toxic oxygen species; yet neutroplasts caused insignificant endothelial damage, measured as 51Cr "lift-off"from anchoring matrix (PMN = 24.3% +/- 1.8% vs neutroplast = 1.2% +/- 0.4%; p less than 0.001). Adding pure elastase back to neutroplasts increased endothelial cell lift-off (7% +/- 0.2%). Although the prototypic serine protease inhibitor phenyl methylsulfonylfluoride (PMSF) protected endothelium from PMNs, pure alpha-1-PI (also a potent anti-elastase) when added in physiologic amounts did not protect endothelial cells from PMN assault, suggesting that PMN oxidants might inactivate it. By adding exogenous myeloperoxidase (MPO) to MPO-deficient neutroplasts, we demonstrated that MPO-dependent oxidants, probably N-chloramines, are critical inactivators of alpha-1-PI. This was further confirmed since added free methionine, a scavenger of chloramine, protected alpha-1-PI from inactivation by reagent chloramine or that produced by rearmed neutroplasts or PMN.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Arteriosclerosis
PMID:Neutrophil oxidants inactivate alpha-1-protease inhibitor and promote PMN-mediated detachment of cultured endothelium. Protection by free methionine. 348 53

Elastic fibers are progressively lysed during maturation and aging and in an accelerated fashion in several aging diseases such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis, emphysema and several skin diseases. Several enzymes (elastase-type proteases) were isolated in recent years in our laboratory which appear to be involved in these processes. A cell membrane bound serine protease was isolated from arterial smooth muscle cells and was shown to increase with in vitro aging of the cells. A metallo-protease was isolated from skin fibroblasts and was shown to be capable of attacking the constituents of elastic fibers, mainly the microfibrillar glycoproteins and also the desmosine cross linked elastin in vivo. This partially purified fibroblast enzyme was shown to attack these elastic fibers when injected into the dermis. A new selective staining procedure was used to visualise and quantitate, by computerized image analysis, the skin elastic fibers in normal and pathological human or animal skin biopsies. This method, combined with the injection of elastase in rabbit skins, alone or together with inhibitors, enables the ex vivo/in vivo study of elastase action (and of its inhibition).
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PMID:Interaction between elastin and elastases and its role in the aging of the arterial wall, skin and other connective tissues. A review. 639 11

Insoluble elastin immobilised in Agar plates was used as substrate to quantitate the elastase inhibitory capacity of human sera. This technique was found valuable to evaluate the genetic deficiency of alpha-1-antitrypsin (Z phenotypes) and also the functional loss of the elastase inhibitory capacity in smokers. A significant decrease of elastase inhibitory capacity was demonstrated in the sera of smokers between 40 and 80 years of age, as compared to non smokers of the same age. This method may be useful for the evaluation of patients suffering from elastic tissue diseases (emphysema, arteriosclerosis).
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PMID:[A simple method for detection of functional and genetics alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiencies of human serum (author's transl)]. 697 90

Among reactive oxygen species generated by human neutrophils during inflammatory disorders, hypochlorous acid and hydroxyl radical are especially involved in many diseases such as arteriosclerosis or emphysema. It was shown in vitro that two thiol-containing drugs, mesna and N-acetylcysteine, have antioxidant properties towards these oxidants. The 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50s) of mesna and N-acetylcysteine for hypochlorous acid production by stimulated neutrophils were 29 and 30 mcM, respectively, and for hydroxyl radical production, IC50s were 520 and 480 mcM, respectively. With this in vitro demonstrated effectiveness, both mesna and N-acetylcysteine have been considered as therapeutic antioxidants to decrease tissue damage inflicted by an excess of activated neutrophils by scavenging hypochlorous acid and hydroxyl radical.
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PMID:Decrease of hypochlorous acid and hydroxyl radical generated by stimulated human neutrophils: comparison in vitro of some thiol-containing drugs. 816 75


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