Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0038002 (splenomegaly)
 9,873 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Niemann-Pick disease, type C1 (Npc1), is an atypical lysosomal storage disorder caused by autosomal recessive inheritance of mutations in Npc1 gene. In the Npc1 mutant mice (Npc1-/- ), the initial manifestation is enlarged spleen, concomitant with free cholesterol accumulation. Telocytes (TCs), a novel type of interstitial cell, exist in a variety of tissues including spleen, presumably thought to be involved in many biological processes such as nursing stem cells and recruiting inflammatory cells. In this study, we found that the spleen is significantly enlarged in Npc1-/- mice, and the results from transmission electron microscopy examination and immunostaining using three different TCs markers, c-Kit, CD34 and Vimentin revealed significantly increased splenic TCs in Npc1-/- mice. Furthermore, hematopoietic stem cells and macrophages were also elevated in Npc1-/- spleen. Taken together, our data indicate that splenic TCs might alleviate the progress of splenic malfunction via recruiting hematopoietic stem cells and macrophages.
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PMID:Telocytes: a potential defender in the spleen of Npc1 mutant mice. 2786 Feb 45

Niemann-Pick disease, type C1 (NPC1) is a rare, autosomal recessive, lipid storage disorder caused by mutations in NPC1. As a result, there is accumulation of unesterified cholesterol and sphingolipids in the late endosomal/lysosomal system. Clinically, patients can present with splenomegaly and hepatomegaly. In the current study, we analyzed the differential proteome of the spleen in symptomatic Npc1-/- mice to complement previous studies focused on the differential proteome of the liver, and then evaluated biomolecules that may serve as tissue biomarkers. The proteomic analysis revealed altered pathways in NPC1 representing different functional categories including heme synthesis, cellular regulation and phosphoinositide metabolism in both tissues. Differential proteins included several activators of the ubiquitous and critical protein, Akt, a major kinase involved in multiple cellular processes. Evaluation of Akt revealed decreased expression in both the liver and spleen tissues of symptomatic Npc1-/- mice. Upstream regulation analysis also suggested that miR-155 may modulate the differences of known downstream protein targets observed in our dataset. Upon evaluation of miR-155, we observed an increased expression in the liver and decreased expression in the spleen of symptomatic Npc1-/- mice. Here, we propose that miR-155 may be a novel indicator of spleen and liver pathology in NPC1.
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PMID:Differential Proteomics Reveals miR-155 as a Novel Indicator of Liver and Spleen Pathology in the Symptomatic Niemann-Pick Disease, Type C1 Mouse Model. 3087 Sep 90