Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0038187 (starvation)
 24,951 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Contemporary human diets are probably as diverse now as they have ever been in the history of mankind. The abundance of food in the western world is in stark contrast to the lack of food and near starvation in parts of Africa, the continent where Homo sapiens evolved. The development of agriculture has enabled the population of the world to expand and to colonize almost the whole of its land surface, but the dependence on one staple food has introduced problems. If the staple crop fails, for example because of drought, there may be no alternative, and undernutrition and starvation are the result. Further, if the rest of the diet does not provide the nutrients that the staple food lacks, diseases due to specific nutrient deficiencies become widespread. Vitamin deficiencies among adults are less common now than they were 50 years ago, but even today millions of children in the poor rice-eating areas of the world are blind because their diets were deficient in vitamin A. For physiological reasons infants and young children will suffer most wherever there is a scarcity of food, of water, or of specific nutrients.
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PMID:Contemporary human diets and their relation to health and growth: overview and conclusions. 168 87

The siege of Leningrad by fascist German troops (1941-1942) resulted in an acute food shortage which lead to severe malnutrition in the population and amongst military personnel. In the face of severe nutritional deficiency the majority of illnesses demonstrated a completely atypical clinical course and were thus difficult to diagnose. The results of autopsy first revealed the true underlying cause of death in many cases of bacterial dysentery, atypical pneumonia, generalized tuberculosis and vitamin deficiency in severely emaciated patients. As a result of the work of the Leningrad pathologists, many of whom themselves fell victim to starvation and illness, it was possible to improve the diagnosis and therapy of many disease with atypical courses. Moreover it was possible to institute preventive measures against the spread of epidemics. The overriding lesson from the bitter experience of the Leningrad pathologists is that keeping the peace must be the highest priority of all peoples and for every physician.
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PMID:[Role of pathologists in the besieged city of Leningrad (1941-1943)]. 330 18

1. ATP sulphurylase was assayed in various organs from vitamin A-deficient and pair-fed control rats at different stages of deficiency. Activity decreased slightly in the liver and markedly in the adrenal gland. Striking differences in liver activity were observed between pair-fed control and ad libitum-fed animals. This observation suggested that diet (apart from vitamin A) strongly influenced the activity of ATP sulphurylase. 2. Total starvation caused a severe decrease in activity in liver within 48hr. This was due to a lack of protein intake. 3. By feeding groups of vitamin A-deficient and pair-fed control rats on a diet containing 80% protein, the specific activity of the liver ATP sulphurylase was maintained in the pair-fed control group at the normal level of an ad libitum-fed rat, whereas it decreased by 25% (statistically significant at P<0.01) in the deficient rat. On a 20%-protein diet, there were no significant differences between vitamin A-deficient and pair-fed control rats. These relationships held also for enzyme activity expressed per g. of liver, per total liver and per g. of DNA. There were no differences in liver protein or DNA concentration between vitamin A-deficient and control rats on either protein intake. 4. Control rats on a 20%-protein diet had liver specific enzyme activities about one-half of those in control rats on an 80%-protein diet, as well as lower liver protein concentrations. 5. It is concluded that, when the effect of protein deprivation on ATP sulphurylase is separated from the effect of vitamin A deficiency, a lowering of the enzyme activity caused by the vitamin deficiency is demonstrable.
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PMID:The effect of vitamin A and other dietary constituents on the activity of adenosine triphosphate sulphurylase. 566 50