Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0039483 (giant cell arteritis)
 3,204 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

One of the proposed mechanisms of vascular damage in connective tissue disease is the direct action of a cytotoxic serum factor inducing endothelial cell damage. The nature of this serum factor is unclear, but has been suggested to be a lipoprotein. Sera from patients with (1) systemic necrotising arteritis (polyarteritis nodosa, Wegener's granulomatosis, and necrotising arteritis associated with rheumatoid synovitis), (2) systemic or joint restricted rheumatoid disease, and (3) large vessel/giant cell arteritis have been examined for cytotoxicity to human cultured endothelial cells and azide-resistant ferroxidase-like activity (indicative of the oxidised lipoprotein content). Stored sera from patients with necrotising arteritis showed a significantly enhanced tendency to develop oxidised lipoprotein, which correlated closely with human endothelial cell cytotoxicity. Fresh sera also contained this factor, but to a lesser extent. It is argued that the cytotoxic factor detected in previous clinical studies is in part an in-vitro artefact, although its accelerated development in certain patient groups might suggest an excess of pro-oxidants that have developed in vivo.
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PMID:Endothelial cell cytotoxicity in inflammatory vascular diseases--the possible role of oxidised lipoproteins. 397 20