Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0042373 (vascular disease)
 17,070 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Multiple lines of evidence implicate the polyamines, putrescine, spermidine, and spermine in the lung injury and hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease produced in rats by the pyrrolizidine alkaloid monocrotaline. While increases in lung polyamine content evoked by monocrotaline can be attributed in part to induction of the two rate-limiting enzymes in de novo polyamine synthesis, ornithine decarboxylase and S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase, little attention has been paid to the role that catabolic interconversion processes might play in lung polyamine accumulation. Accordingly, the present study evaluated dose (10-60 mg/kg)- and time (0-21 days)-dependent effects of monocrotaline on lung contents of acetylated polyamines and on the activity of spermidine/spermine acetyltransferase (SAT), the enzyme affecting spermidine acetylation. A single subcutaneous injection of monocrotaline produced dose- and time-dependent increases in the lung content of N1-acetylspermidine. Neither N1-acetylspermine nor N1-acetylputrescine could be detected in lungs from control rats or from rats treated with monocrotaline. SAT activity also was increased in monocrotaline-treated rat lungs in a dose- and time-dependent manner that was closely related to increases in the lung burden of N1-acetylspermidine. As expected, monocrotaline also caused dose- and time-dependent elevations in the lung contents of the primary polyamines, putrescine, spermidine, and spermine. Right ventricular hypertrophy, an index of sustained pulmonary hypertension, did not develop in animals treated with 10 or 20 mg/kg monocrotaline despite elevations in the lung contents of putrescine and N1-acetylspermidine and increases in the activity of SAT. In contrast, 30 and 60 mg/kg monocrotaline provoked right ventricular hypertrophy accompanied by elevations in the primary polyamines, N1-acetyl spermidine and SAT activity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
 ...
PMID:Acetylated polyamines in lungs from rats with monocrotaline-induced pneumotoxicity. 250 83

Previous work in our laboratory has shown that the development of monocrotaline-induced pulmonary vascular disease in rats is preceded by a prolonged activation of lung ornithine decarboxylase (ODC). We now report that significant increases in rat lung adenosylmethionine decarboxylase activity and levels of the diamine putrescine and the polyamines, spermidine and spermine, are produced by a single dose of monocrotaline (MCT). Lung putrescine levels were increased from days 7 through 21, and both spermidine and spermine were first elevated at day 10 following MCT administration. This sustained elevation of lung polyamine levels substantially preceded the development of right ventricular hypertrophy and pulmonary hypertension, which were first evident at days 14 and 16, respectively. Continuous treatment with alpha-difluoromethylornithine, a highly specific enzyme-activated, irreversible inhibitor of ODC activity, prevented the development of MCT-induced pulmonary toxicity. It thus appears that ODC and the polyamines may be important mediators of hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease that develops in response to monocrotaline administration.
 ...
PMID:Polyamines and the development of monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension. 643 45

The polyamines are a family of low-molecular-weight organic cations that play essential intracellular regulatory roles in cell growth and differentiation. Elevations in cellular polyamine contents necessary for most physiological and pathological events in the lung appear to be driven by increase de novo synthesis. In contrast, increases in lung cell polyamines required for hypoxic pulmonary vascular disease can be attributed to augmented transmembrane polyamine transport which may, in turn, be the result of hypoxia-related decreases in the activity of the initial and generally rate-limiting enzyme in de novo polyamine synthesis, ornithine decarboxylase (ODC). To begin to define the unusual mechanism whereby hypoxia governs polyamine regulatory pathways, the present study examined the impact of varying severity and durations of hypoxic exposure on ODC activity and mRNA content in cultured bovine main pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMC). The effect of hypoxia on the activity of another rate-limiting enzyme in polyamine synthesis, S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (AdoMet-DC), also was examined. Hypoxia caused time-dependent decreases in ODC and AdoMet-DC activities that were related to the severity of hypoxic exposure. Similarly, ODC mRNA content also was depressed by hypoxic exposure. The relationship between the decline in ODC activity and mRNA content was roughly linear. To determine whether hypoxia impairs ODC mRNA stability, two different inhibitors of transcription and Northern analyses were used to follow the decay in ODC mRNA abundance in hypoxic and normoxic PASMC. Densitometric scanning of Northern analysis indicated that ODC mRNA stability did not differ between hypoxic and normoxic PASMC. These results suggest that the reduction in ODC activity provoked by hypoxia in cultured bovine PASMC can be ascribed in part to a diminished transcriptional rate rather than to alterations in mRNA stability.
 ...
PMID:Regulation of ornithine decarboxylase by hypoxia in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells. 876 Jan 29