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)

In order to clarify whether cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS) could differentiate groups of patients with various vascular diagnosis, CBS was studied in cultured human skin fibroblasts from 99 human subjects diagnosed as homozygotes or heterozygotes for CBS deficiency or suffering from atherosclerotic vascular disease or Down's syndrome (prone to less atherosclerosis). In addition, embryonic human skin fibroblasts and controls were analysed for CBS. We found significant group differences but the overlap in the hetero- and homozygotes for CBS deficiency was too extensive to allow any individual diagnosis based on cell culture studies. CBS activity was significantly lower in the atherosclerotic patients as compared to control subjects. The difference was mostly due to much higher CBS activity in the younger controls. Age dependency was markedly emphasized by very high values from embryonic cells. A strong negative correlation was noted for age and CBS activity in control subjects but not in the atherosclerotic patients. The results are important for the discussion of homocysteine in atherosclerosis and point to the importance of donor age on CBS activity in cultured cells. In addition, diagnosis of hetero-homozygosity for CBS activity is not possible on an individual basis by this method. Further studies in cell culture systems are needed to investigate if young patients (less than 45 years old) with atherosclerotic disease could be identified by low CBS activity in fibroblast cultures as indicated by this study.
 ...
PMID:Age dependency of cystathionine beta-synthase activity in human fibroblasts in homocyst(e)inemia and atherosclerotic vascular disease. 138 57

Hyperhomocysteinemia arising from impaired methionine metabolism, and usually due to a deficiency of cystathionine beta-synthase is a significant and independent risk factor for symptomatic vascular disease. It is not known if hyperhomocysteinemia in apparently healthy asymptomatic subjects is associated with atherosclerosis and whether such a relationship is independent of conventional risk factors. The prevalence of asymptomatic extracranial carotid artery atherosclerosis was determined by duplex ultrasound examination in 25 obligate heterozygotes with respect for cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency (whose children were known to be homozygous for this genetic defect) and in 21 controls. Hyperhomocysteinemia was determined by a standard methionine-loading test and conventional risk factors were also recorded. Twelve of 25 obligate heterozygotes and 8 of 21 normal controls had evidence of extracranial carotid artery atherosclerosis. Hyperhomocysteinemia as a genetic trait was not a significant risk marker, but the actual homocysteine level was associated with an increased risk of carotid disease. After adjustment for the effects of other significant risk factors, the odds ratio of hyperhomocysteinemia for carotid disease was 1.038 per unit increase in homocysteine level (P = 0.03). Hyperhomocysteinemia is a weak risk factor for asymptomatic extracranial carotid atherosclerosis and the relative risk associated with this genetic trait is less than that observed in a study of patients presenting with clinical manifestations of vascular disease.
 ...
PMID:Hyperhomocysteinaemia: a risk factor for extracranial carotid artery atherosclerosis. 151 57

Severe homocysteinemia due to genetic defects either of pyridoxal 5-phosphate (PLP)-dependent cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS) or of enzymes in vitamin B12 and folate metabolism is associated with very early-onset vascular disease. Therefore, we studied homocysteine metabolism in 72 patients presenting before the age of 55 years with occlusive arterial disease of cerebral, carotid, or aorto-iliac vessels. Twenty patients (28%) had basal homocysteinemia; and 26 patients (36%) had abnormal increases of plasma homocysteine after peroral methionine loading, which exceeded the highest value for 46 comparable controls and was within the range for 20 obligate heterozygotes for homocystinuria due to CBS deficiency. Basal plasma homocysteine content was strongly and negatively correlated to vitamin B12 and folate concentrations. Plasma PLP was depressed in most patients but there was no correlation between PLP and homocysteine values. In 20 patients, treatment with pyridoxine hydrochloride (240 mg/day) and folic acid (10 mg/day) reduced fasting homocysteine after 4 weeks by a mean of 53%, and methionine response by a mean of 39%. These data show that a substantial proportion of patients with early-onset vascular disease have impaired homocysteine metabolism, which may contribute to vascular disease, and that the impaired metabolism can be improved easily and without side effects.
 ...
PMID:Impaired homocysteine metabolism in early-onset cerebral and peripheral occlusive arterial disease. Effects of pyridoxine and folic acid treatment. 240 53

Thrombogenesis and accelerated atherogenesis occur in the homocystinurias, both those due to recessively inherited cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency and to disorders of remethylation of homocysteine to methionine. The evidence strongly implicates high levels of plasma homocysteine as the mediator. Homocysteine damages cultured human venous and arterial endothelial cells and enhances detachment from their substrate, changes not found with comparable concentrations of other amino acids tested. Homocysteine is oxidized in vitro to homocystine in an oxygen-dependent reaction producing hydrogen peroxide. Since the effects of homocysteine in cell cultures can be prevented by catalase, hydrogen-peroxide-induced injury may be the mechanism responsible. Five different laboratories have documented an association between mild homocysteinaemia and premature vascular disease. The majority of affected patients are heterozygotes for cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency whose endothelial cells may have an enhanced susceptibility to injury by homocysteine. Mild homocysteinaemia also occurs in chronic renal failure in which vascular disease is prominent. Mechanisms linking mild homocysteinaemia and possible vascular effects are not yet understood, but could involve prostaglandins and oxidized low-density lipoprotein, and possibly also free radicals.
 ...
PMID:Mechanisms of thrombogenesis and accelerated atherogenesis in homocysteinaemia. 268 Aug 9

In three different studies we tested the hypothesis that early-onset vascular disease is associated with impaired homocysteine metabolism which could contribute to the development of arteriosclerosis and thrombosis. In patients with occlusive vascular disease before the age of 60, a post-methionine load increase of plasma homocysteine exceeding the highest value for comparable healthy control subjects was found in 1 of 21 with myocardial infarction (5%), 14 of 37 with aorto-iliac disease (38%), and 17 of 53 with cerebrovascular disease (32%). This might indicate heterozygosity for homocystinuria due to cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency. Concentrations of serum vitamin B12 and red cell folate had an important modulating effect on plasma homocysteine concentrations in the fasting state.
 ...
PMID:Plasma homocysteine and methionine tolerance in early-onset vascular disease. 268 Aug 11

Homocysteine is an amino acid considered to cause vascular injury, arteriosclerosis, and thromboembolism. Total plasma homocysteine (free and protein-bound) was found to be twice as high in asymptomatic vitamin B12-deficient subjects (23.8 +/- 3.8 mumol/L, means +/- SEM, n = 20) as in controls (11.5 +/- 0.9 mumol/L, P less than .0001, n = 21), and higher than in heterozygotes for homocystinuria due to cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency (13.8 +/- 1.6 mumol/L, P less than .01, n = 14), who were recently shown to be much more common among patients with premature vascular disease than expected. Eight (40%) vitamin B12-deficient and two (14%) heterozygote subjects had significant homocysteinemia (greater than mean +2 SD for controls). After administration of hydroxycobalamin to vitamin B12-deficient subjects, homocysteine levels decreased to normal (-49%, 12.2 +/- 1.5 mumol/L, P less than .0001, n = 20). Thus, if homocysteine does cause vascular injury, theoretically vitamin B12-deficiency might be associated with an increased frequency of vascular disease.
 ...
PMID:Higher total plasma homocysteine in vitamin B12 deficiency than in heterozygosity for homocystinuria due to cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency. 334 5

Homocyst(e)ine [H(e)], the sum of homocysteine, homocystine, and the homocysteine-cysteine mixed disulfide, free and protein-bound, has been shown to be associated in retrospective case control studies, and in one prospective study, with vascular disease, including coronary artery disease (CAD), cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral vascular disease. Elevated levels of homocyst(e)ine severe enough to cause homocystinuria are seen in severe nutritional deficiencies of vitamin B12, folic acid and vitamin B6. Rare genetic disorders of vitamin B12 synthesis of 5'-10'-methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase, or the pyridoxal phosphate-dependent enzyme cystathionine beta-synthase may cause severe hyperhomocyst(e)inemia and homocystinuria. The clinical manifestation of these disorders are mental retardation, neurological disorders, and widespread thromboembolic phenomena. The measurement of H(e) is currently performed using high-pressure liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. Other methods, especially mass spectroscopy, are also used. Internal standards using increasing concentrations of homocystine and acetylcysteine and several external standards are used to ensure accuracy of the assay. Milder elevations of H(e) have recently been associated with vascular disease, in both men and women. The strength of this association appears to be stronger for peripheral and cerebrovascular disease than for CAD. Nevertheless, several case control studies in Europe, Canada, and the United States have shown that H(e) levels are elevated in CAD patients compared with controls, and H(e) levels are independent of the conventional cardiovascular risk factors (age, gender, lipid and lipoprotein cholesterol levels, hypertension, or cigarette smoking). One prospective study, the Physicians' Health Study, has shown that H(e) levels are slightly but significantly higher in CAD cases vs controls in a population of US physicians.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
 ...
PMID:Measurement of homocyst(e)ine in the prediction of arteriosclerosis. 762 74

Two brothers and a sister suffering from homocystinuria caused by cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency and the possibilities of treatment are presented. Possible clinical variability, the necessity for early diagnosis and the importance of hyperhomocysteinemia as a risk factor for early-onset vascular disease are discussed.
 ...
PMID:[Homocystinuria: case reports with a note on hyperhomocysteinemia as a risk factor for the early onset of vascular disease]. 785 96

Mild homocysteinemia occurs surprisingly often in patients with premature vascular disease. We studied the possible enzymatic sources of this mild hyperhomocysteinemia and the control of homocysteine levels in plasma by treatment of patients with the cofactors and cosubstrates of homocysteine catabolism. We assessed homocysteine metabolism in 131 patients who had premature disease in their coronary, peripheral, or cerebrovascular circulation by using a standard oral methionine-load test. Impaired homocysteine metabolism occurred in 28 patients. We assayed levels of the primary enzymes of homocysteine catabolism in cultured skin fibroblast extracts from 15 of these 28 patients. The patients' cystathionine beta-synthase levels (3.68 +/- 2.52 nmol/h per milligram of cell protein, mean +/- SD) were markedly depressed compared with those from 31 healthy adult control subjects (7.61 +/- 4.49, P < .001). The patients' levels of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate: homocysteine methyltransferase were normal. While betaine: homocysteine methyltransferase was not expressed in skin fibroblasts, 24-hour urinary betaine and N,N-dimethylglycine measurements were consistent with normal or enhanced remethylation of homocysteine by betaine: homocysteine methyltransferase in the 13 patients tested. When treated daily with choline and betaine, pyridoxine, or folic acid, there was a normalization of the postmethionine plasma homocysteine level in 16 of 19 patients. Our results indicate that mild homocysteinemia in premature vascular disease may be caused by either a folate deficiency or deficiencies in cystathionine beta-synthase activity. It does not necessarily involve deficiencies of either 5-methyltetrahydrofolate:homocysteine methyltransferase or betaine:homocysteine methyltransferase. Effective treatment regimens are also defined.
 ...
PMID:Disordered methionine/homocysteine metabolism in premature vascular disease. Its occurrence, cofactor therapy, and enzymology. 836 9

Elevated circulating homocyst(e)ine is a risk factor for occlusive vascular disease. We explored whether elevated plasma homocyst(e)ine is associated with increased plasma lipid hydroperoxides that might trigger vascular disease. We obtained plasma containing high levels of homocyst(e)ine from four patients with a homozygous deficiency of cystathionine beta-synthase activity and also from four heterozygotes with a deficiency of this enzyme after an oral methionine load. The mean plasma non-protein-bound homocyst(e)ine level in all subjects was more than 11-fold higher than the mean normal fasting value. Levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesteryl ester hydroperoxides (CEOOH), normalized against the concentration of free cholesterol in HDL, were not elevated in our subjects (mean +/- SD, 0.0091 +/- 0.0061) compared with values for 14 fasting healthy donors (0.0164 +/- 0.0086). An inverse dependency was observed between plasma total homocyst(e)ine and HDL CEOOH (r = -0.78, p = 0.023). Also, the ubiquinol-10/ubiquinone-10 ratio in HDL, which is expected to fall during oxidative stress, increased with plasma homocyst(e)ine. Since HDL contains the majority of detectable plasma lipid hydroperoxides, of which CEOOHs are the most abundant, our data suggest that an elevated plasma homocyst(e)ine level does not enhance oxidative stress, increase the levels of lipid hydroperoxides in plasma, or generate vascular damage by this mechanism.
 ...
PMID:Circulating lipid hydroperoxide levels in human hyperhomocysteinemia. Relevance to development of arteriosclerosis. 846 86


1 2 3 4 5 Next >>