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)

We studied the effect of low-protein diet (8% casein) on lung growth in rats from 3 to 7 weeks of age. Their diet was isocaloric with that of control animals fed a diet of 20% casein. The calorie intake of experimental animals was increased during the first 3 weeks of the experiment, but they increased less (about 10%) in body weight, had less protein and less water when the whole body was examined, and had lower serum proteins and decreased urinary hydroxyproline. The experimental animals remained in positive nitrogen balance by maintaining low urinary nitrogen excretion. The lungs of the experimental animals were abnormal, with decreased absolute amounts of hydroxyproline and desmosine and of these relative to unit lung weight. The lungs contained more air per gram of lung tissue, and the volume of air in the lung was increased at all transpulmonary pressures above zero. When corrected for increased total lung capacity, there was a loss of recoil at mid-lung volumes. Saline-filled volume-pressure curves, corrected for lung volume, showed similar loss of recoil. Alveolar multiplication was quantitatively normal, but the experimental animals had larger alveoli. We conclude that the protein deprivation in isocalorically fed animals has a specific effect on lung scleroprotein content, which may be due to diminished synthesis, and this results in both structural and functional abnormalities in the lung. Our results indicate the importance of dietary protein in lung development and possibly as one of the causes of emphysema. Further studies are needed to know whether this would be a problem in infants of Kwashiokor.
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PMID:Connective tissue, mechanical, and morphometric changes in the lungs of weanling rats fed a low protein diet. 279 30

The effects of dietary protein on the function and morphology of diaphragm of rats with emphysema were observed in 50 SD rats, 10 rats in each group. The emphysema in groups E(emphysema control), HP(emphysema with high protein diet) and LP(emphysema with low protein diet) was induced by intra-tracheal instillation of elastase (750 U/kg BW). The control rat (C1, C2) were instilled with normal saline. After 6 weeks of experiment, the total lung volume and the average area of alveolus was significantly increased in the group E compared with group C1 (P < 0.05) and the number of alveolus per unit area was also reduced obviously (P < 0.05). The average contractile force of diaphragm at a stimulus rate of 20 Hz expressed as a ratio of the maximal contractile force (F20/Fmax) was increased significantly in group E compared with group C (P < 0.01). The cross-sectional area of slow-twitch fibers increased significantly in group E. After 10 weeks of oral supplementation with 24% casein(HP) or 8% casein (LP) to the rats with emphysema, the contractility of the diaphragm in group LP was lower than that in the control group and the HP group. It was concluded that high protein diet might be beneficial to maintain the function of diaphragm in patients with emphysema.
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PMID:[Effect of dietary protein on the function and morphology of diaphragm in rats with experimental emphysema]. 1256 17