Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0086543 (cataract)
 29,165 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Oxidative mechanisms are thought to play a major role in several biological phenomena, including cataract formation. In the following studies we determined the relative levels of expression of the genes for the mRNAs for glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), CuZn-superoxide dismutase (CuZn-SOD) and catalase, in both the rat lens and liver. Northern blot hybridization methods were used to determine the mRNA size. The RNase protection method was used to determine levels of expression for these mRNAs plus levels of expression for alpha A-crystallin and gamma-crystallin mRNAs in the lens, and gamma-actin mRNAs in both the lens and the liver; using [32P]-labeled specific cRNA probes transcribed from the various cDNA clones for the mRNAs being studied. The data was normalized relative to the level of expression of alpha A-crystallin and gamma-actin mRNAs in the lens, and to gamma-actin mRNA in the liver. We find the levels of the mRNAs in the lens fall in the following descending order: GPx > GR > CuZn-SOD > catalase, in the same order as has been reported for the activities of the enzymes in the lens. In the liver, levels of these mRNAs were as follows: GPx > CuZn-SOD > GR > catalase. In the liver, CuZn-SOD mRNA was expressed at about four times the level found in the lens, GPx at three times, catalase at three times and GR at about the same level.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Levels of expression of the genes for glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase and CuZn-superoxide dismutase in rat lens and liver. 783 6

Damage to lens epithelial cells is a probable initiation process in cataract formation mediated by UV radiation. In these experiments, we investigated the effects of exposure to 254 nm radiation on cell cycle progression and gene expression in the rabbit lens epithelial cell line N/N1003A. The RNA was harvested at various times following exposure to UV (254 nm) radiation and analyzed by dot-blot and northern blot hybridizations. These results revealed that during the first 6 h following exposure of the cells to UV, there was, associated with decreasing dose, a decrease in accumulation of transcripts specific for histones H3 and H4 and an increase in the mRNA encoding protein kinase C and beta- and gamma-actin. Using flow cytometry, we detected an accumulation of cells in G1/S phase of the cell cycle 1 h following exposure to 254 nm radiation. The observed changes in gene expression, especially the decreased accumulation of histone transcripts reported here, may play a role in UV-induced inhibition of cell cycle progression.
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PMID:UV-induced changes in cell cycle and gene expression within rabbit lens epithelial cells. 857 69