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)

Rats and guinea pigs, pretreated with intratracheally administered elastase or saline, were exposed to 1.03 mg/m3 (NH4)2SO4; MMAD, 0.42 micron. Identically treated controls were sham exposed. Measurements and evaluation of structural changes were conducted using morphometric techniques on SEM photographs and by applying subjective ratings. Pathology studies were conducted by light and electron microscopy. All examination methods confirmed elastase-induced emphysema, which was aggravated by (NH4)2SO4 exposure in the rat. Ammonium sulfate exposure of saline-treated animals produced measurable degrees of enlargement of alveoli, and alveolar ducts and sacs. Electron microscopy revealed increased interstitial collagen in affected lung areas of elastase-treated, (NH4)2SO4-exposed animals. Alveolar-pore size was significantly increased in elastase-treated animals (control and exposed) but not in saline-treated, exposed animals. The data suggest a possible difference between elastase and (NH4)2SO4 in the mechanisms responsible for the increased diameter of alveolar structures. Hypertrophy and hyperplasia of nonciliated epithelial cells of the small airways and of the Type II alveolar cells were observed in otherwise untreated guinea pigs exposed to (NH4)2SO4 but not in elastase-treated guinea pigs, nor in any of the rats.
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PMID:Effects of ammonium sulfate aerosol exposure on lung structure of normal and elastase-impaired rats and guinea pigs. 656 15

alpha1-Antichymotrypsin is an acute phase protein that protects the tissues from damage by proteolytic enzymes, but previous studies have shown that alpha1-antichymotrypsin within the lungs of patients with chronic bronchitis and emphysema is intact but inactive as an inhibitor. Ammonium sulfate fractionation followed by blue Sepharose and DNA-Sepharose chromatography was used to isolate small amounts of intact, monomeric but inactive alpha1-antichymotrypsin from the plasma of 30 healthy blood donors. This species had a higher DNA binding affinity with more anodal electrophoretic mobility than native alpha1-antichymotrypsin and was conformationally stable against thermal denaturation, 8 M urea, and 7 M guanidinium chloride. The protein was unable to accept synthetic reactive loop peptides, and the reactive loop was resistant to proteolytic cleavage at the P5-P4 bond but could be cleaved between P1' and P3'. These data suggest that this new alpha1-antichymotrypsin species was in a conformation similar to those of the crystallographically determined latent serpins, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 and antithrombin. alpha1-Antichymotrypsin from lung lavage migrated with the same electrophoretic mobility as the putative latent alpha1-antichymotrypsin, suggesting that this is the inactive conformation described previously in the lungs of patients with chronic bronchitis and emphysema. This conformational transition of alpha1-antichymotrypsin, from an active to an inactive state, within the lung may play an important role in the pathogenesis of chronic lung disease.
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PMID:Latent alpha1-antichymotrypsin. A molecular explanation for the inactivation of alpha1-antichymotrypsin in chronic bronchitis and emphysema. 945