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 47,337 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) of bone is a valuable tool in the assessment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. QUS and new markers of bone turnover have been poorly assessed in Cushing's syndrome, however. Twenty-five patients with Cushing's syndrome (20 women, 3 men; mean age +/- SEM: 38+/-2 years) were studied and compared with 35 age- and sex-matched control patients (mean age +/- SEM: 38+/-2 years). The following variables were measured in both groups: QUS parameters at the heel (BUA; SOS; Stiffness Index, SI); bone mineral density (BMD) at both the lumbar spine (LS) and femoral neck (FN) by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry; and serum markers of bone turnover (osteocalcin, procollagen type I N- and C-terminal propeptides (PINP and PICP), bone alkaline phosphatase (BAP), procollagen type I C-terminal telopeptide (ICTP) and urinary type I collagen C-telopepetide breakdown products (CTX)). Both BUA and SI were decreased in patients with Cushing's syndrome (p<0.01) but not SOS (p=0.08). BMD was also strongly decreased in Cushing's syndrome, at both the LS and FN (p<0.005). The two markers of bone turnover statistically significantly different between the two groups were osteocalcin (mean + SEM: 3.5 + 0.7 ng/ml (Cushing's syndrome) vs 6.4+/-0.5 ng/ml (controls, p<0.01)) and CTX (mean +/- SEM: 148.7+/-17.1 microg/mmol Cr (Cushing's syndrome) vs 220.8+/-22.9 microg/mmol Cr (controls), p<0.05). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were 0.72 (BUA), 0.73 (SI), 0.90 (BMD(LS)), 0.81 (BMD(FN)), 0.83 (osteocalcin) and 0.64 (CTX) respectively. AUC was significantly higher for BMD(LS) than for both BUA and SI (p<0.05). Conversely AUC was not statistically significantly different for BMDFN as compared with either BUA or SI. AUC was also higher for osteocalcin than for other markers of bone turnover. In conclusion, QUS of bone seems to be a relevant tool for assessing bone involvement in Cushing's syndrome. QUS does have a lower sensitivity compared with DXA, however, and the relevance of QUS cannot be ascertained until some longitudinal data are forthcoming. Except for CTX, the other new markers of bone turnover assessed in this study (PINP, PICP, BAP and ICTP) do not seem of interest in Cushing's syndrome.
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PMID:Quantitative ultrasound of bone and markers of bone turnover in Cushing's syndrome. 1130 11

Recent studies have demonstrated that human articular chondrocytes can express the gene for a contractile muscle actin, alpha-smooth muscle actin (SMA), in situ. One objective of this work was to evaluate the SMA-content of isolated human articular chondrocytes using Western blot analysis and to correlate the amount of SMA in the cells with passage number and the number of days in culture. A second objective was to determine if articular cartilage-derived cells expressing the gene for SMA in vitro also continue to express type II collagen. A final aim of the current study was to determine if SMA-containing cartilage-derived cells were capable of contracting a collagen glycosaminoglycan analog of extracellular matrix in vitro. Articular chondrocytes were isolated from 13 patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty. Cells were serially passaged through passage 7. Samples were allocated for Western blot analysis of SMA. Cells in monolayer culture were also stained immunohistochemically for SMA and type II collagen. Cells from passage 3 and 7 were seeded into a porous type I collagen-glycosaminoglycan matrix and the diameter of the scaffolds measured every other day for 21 days. Immunohistochemistry of the articular cartilage samples revealed SMA in the articular chondrocytes in situ with a greater percentage of cells staining positive in the superficial half (60 +/- 1.2%; mean +/- SEM) of the cartilage than in the basal half (28 +/- 1.3%). There was an increasing amount of SMA in the cells in monolayer culture with passage number and a meaningful correlation of the SMA content with the days in culture (linear regression analysis; R2 = 0.72). Double staining for SMA and type II collagen showed that type II collagen-expressing cells in monolayer could also express SMA. SMA-containing cells were found to contract the collagen glycosaminoglycan matrix, with the cells containing more SMA (passage 7 cells) displaying more matrix contraction than those with a lesser amount of SMA (passage 3 cells). The results indicate that control of the expression of SMA may be important when employing articular chondrocytes, expanded in monolayer culture, for implantation alone or in a cell-seeded matrix for cartilage repair procedures.
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PMID:Smooth muscle actin expression by human articular chondrocytes and their contraction of a collagen-glycosaminoglycan matrix in vitro. 1134 96

Several lines of evidence implicate estrogen deficiency as a cause of bone loss in elderly men. Thus, in 50 elderly men (mean age +/- SD, 69.1 +/- 6.0 years), we performed a randomized blinded study to assess the effect of 6 months of treatment with 60 mg/day of raloxifene (a selective estrogen receptor modulator [SERM] that has an agonist effect on bone but is not feminizing) versus placebo on bone turnover markers. The mean changes in bone turnover markers, serum sex steroid, or lipid levels with treatment did not differ between groups. However, changes in urinary cross-linked N-telopeptide of type I collagen (NTX) excretion were related directly to the baseline serum estradiol level in the raloxifene (r = 0.57; p = 0.004) but not in the placebo-treated (r = 0.15; p = 0.485) men (p = 0.015 for the difference between groups). Moreover, the men in whom NTX excretion decreased after raloxifene treatment had significantly lower baseline estradiol levels (mean +/- SEM, 22 +/- 2 pg/ml) than the men in whom urinary NTX excretion didn't change or increased after raloxifene therapy (30 +/- 3 pg/ml; p = 0.03), and no such difference was found in the placebo group. Thus, raloxifene has no significant effect on bone turnover markers or lipid levels in elderly men. However, the association noted between baseline estradiol levels and the change in urine NTX excretion in the raloxifene-treated men suggests that a subset of men with low estradiol levels may respond to raloxifene or other SERMs, and further studies are needed to directly test this possibility.
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PMID:Effects of raloxifene, a selective estrogen receptor modulator, on bone turnover markers and serum sex steroid and lipid levels in elderly men. 1169 9

Although rapid formation of a smooth inner surface is important in constructing an artificial vascular graft, a conventional model that uses a biodegradable polymer such as poly-glycolic acid needs long-term culture to form it. In another model, which uses collagen gel, it is reported that prompt formation of the smooth inner surface was achieved. But the mechanical properties were not suitable, resulting in rupture under high pressure at the arterial level. Therefore, we propose a new artificial vascular graft model made of biodegradable polymer, gel, and cells. At first we manufactured an artificial vascular graft (i.d. 5 mm, o.d.7 mm) consisting of poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) with open pore structures by using gas-forming methods. After mixing human normal aortic smooth muscle cells (SMCs) with type I collagen solution, pores of the PLLA scaffold were filled with the mixture. The collagen mixture was made into gel in the pores of the PLLA scaffold, incubating at 37 degrees C. WET-SEM analysis showed that the prompt formation of a smooth inner surface was achieved in the new model. The ratio of incorporation of SMCs into the artificial vascular graft became approximately 100% by using the cell-collagen mixture, whereas only 40% of SMCs were trapped in the conventional model where SMCs were inoculated as a cell-medium suspension. Therefore, it was suggested that the new artificial vascular graft model was superior in smooth inner surface formation and cell inoculation, compared with conventional models using either biodegradable polymer or gel.
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PMID:Hybrid of gel-cultured smooth muscle cells with PLLA sponge as a scaffold towards blood vessel regeneration. 1238 77

In a recent in vitro study, chemical microroughening of a bioactive glass surface was shown to enhance attachment of MG-63 osteoblastic cells to glass. The current study was designed to delineate the effects of microroughening on the gene expression patterns of bone markers during osteogenesis and new bone remodeling on bioactive glass surface in vivo. With the use of a rat model of paired comparison, a portion of the medullary canal in the proximal tibia was evacuated through cortical windows and filled with microroughened or smooth bioactive glass microspheres. The primary bone-healing response and subsequent remodeling were analyzed at 1, 2, and 8 weeks, respectively, by radiography, pQCT, histomorphometry, BEI-SEM, and molecular biologic analyses. The expression of various genes for bone matrix components (type I collagen, osteocalcin, osteopontin, osteonectin) and proteolytic enzymes (cathepsin K, MMP-9) were determined by Northern analysis of the respective mRNAs. Paired comparison showed significant differences in the mRNAs levels for specific bone matrix components at 2 weeks: osteopontin was significantly higher (p =.01) and osteonectin significantly lower (p =.05) in bones filled with microroughened microspheres than in those filled with smooth microspheres. Bones filled with microrough microspheres also showed significantly increased ratios of cathepsin K and MMP-9 (both markers of osteoclastic resorption) to type I collagen (p =.02 and p =.02, respectively) at 2 weeks and a significantly increased expression of MMP-9 at 8 weeks (p =.05). The pQCT, histomorphometric, and BEI-SEM analyses revealed no significant differences in the pattern of bone-healing response. Based on these results, microroughening of a bioactive glass surface could trigger temporal changes in the expression of specific genes especially by promoting the resorption part of new bone-remodeling processes. Future studies are needed to evaluate if the observed changes of gene expression are directly related to the microrough surface of any biomaterial or are biomaterial specific.
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PMID:Molecular biologic comparison of new bone formation and resorption on microrough and smooth bioactive glass microspheres. 1263 86

The relationship between duration of exercise and serum remodeling markers of bone turnover was evaluated by osteocalcin (OC), carboxy-terminal propeptide of type I collagen (PICP), total and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and carboxyterminal cross-linked telopeptide of type I collagen (ICTP) in 24 male premier league soccer players exercising 12 hours/week (range 8-18), 19 third league players exercising 8 hours/week (range 3-18) and 20 sixth league players exercising 6 hours/week (range 2-10). Twenty-seven volunteers served as controls. Forty-six former male soccer players (mean age 38 years, range 19-47), mean 15 years older than the current players, were compared with 41 matched controls. Data is presented as mean +/- SEM. Active male players had 18 +/- 4% higher OC, 37 +/- 9% higher bone ALP and 36 +/- 7% higher ICTP than controls (all P < 0.01). There were no differences in remodeling markers within the three groups of active players but each group had higher OC and ICTP than controls (both P < 0.05). Former players had no difference in bone remodeling markers compared to matched controls, but 39 +/- 4% lower OC and 69 +/- 8% lower ICTP than active players (both P < 0.001). Duration of activity was correlated with bone ALP and ICTP (both r = 0.3, P < 0.05) in individuals exercising 6 hours/week or less. No correlation was found in those exercising above this level. It seems as if the bone turnover, evaluated by serum bone remodeling markers, adapts to the current activity needed to maintain bone strength, and a duration of exercise above that level seems to confer no additional benefits.
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PMID:The duration of exercise as a regulator of bone turnover. 1287 8

The aim of the study was to compare bone turnover in male soccer players with controls and to follow bone turnover with changes in activity level. Serum-osteocalcin (OC), carboxy-terminal propeptide of type I collagen (PICP) and total alkaline phosphatases (tALP) were measured to assess bone formation. Bone resorption was detected by carboxyterminal cross-linked telopeptide of type I collagen (ICTP). Bone turnover of 12 male premier league soccer players (mean age 23 years, range, 17-34) exercising 12 hours/week (range, 8-15) were at the last day of the soccer season compared with 27 age- and gender-matched controls. Bone turnover was followed weekly during a 4-week resting period between two seasons, and a further 10 days following resumption of full training. Data are presented as mean +/- SEM. Both OC (22 +/- 12%) and ICTP (34 +/- 17%) were higher in the players compared with the controls at the end of the season (both P < 0.05, respectively). After 2 weeks of reduced physical activity among the athletes, the PICP levels were 21 +/- 4% (P < 0.05) lower and the ICTP levels 8 +/- 12% higher (P = 0.07) compared with baseline. OC, PICP, and tALP was then no different compared with controls and ICTP was higher than controls (P < 0.001). Ten days within the new season, there was a 23 +/- 5% increase in PICP (P < 0.001) and a 4 +/- 4% decrease in ICTP (P < 0.05) compared with the end of the resting period. In summary, male soccer players have higher bone turnover compared with age- and gender-matched controls. Changes in physical activity level were associated with changes in bone formation and resorption as evaluated by bone markers within weeks, and after 2 weeks rest, ICTP was higher in the athletes than the controls. We conclude that the higher age-related diminution in BMD, previously reported in former soccer players compared with age- and gender-matched controls, may be the result of increased bone resorption, evaluated by ICTP, compared with the controls.
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PMID:Bone turnover responses to changed physical activity. 1456 95

Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is a soluble decoy receptor that inhibits bone resorption by binding to receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa B ligand. Murine studies suggest that OPG is elevated in pregnancy, but its role in human pregnancy is unknown. We evaluated the relationship among OPG, bone turnover, and bone density in a longitudinal study of planned human pregnancy and lactation (n = 17; age, 20-36 yr). Samples were collected before conception; at 16, 26, and 36 wk gestation; and at 2 and 12 wk postpartum. Indexes of bone resorption included serum beta C-terminal and urinary N-terminal (uNTX) telopeptides of type I collagen. OPG increased by 110 +/- 16% (mean +/- SEM) at 36 wk (P < 0.001), followed by a rapid postpartum decline in both lactating and nonlactating women. Bone resorption was elevated at 36 wk (serum beta C-terminal telopeptides by 76 +/- 17%; urinary N-terminal telopeptides by 219 +/- 41%; P < 0.001). The tissue source of OPG in pregnancy is unknown. Human breast milk contains large amounts of OPG (162 +/- 58 ng/ml in milk vs. 0.42 +/- 0.03 ng/ml in nonpregnant serum). However, the rapid postpartum decline in serum OPG and the low serum OPG in neonates suggest a placental source. There was no correlation between change in OPG and bone turnover or bone mineral density (P > 0.05), and the physiological importance of elevated OPG in human pregnancy remains uncertain.
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PMID:Serum osteoprotegerin as a determinant of bone metabolism in a longitudinal study of human pregnancy and lactation. 1460 74

This study evaluated the immunohistochemical labeling pattern of dentin collagen fibrils within hybrid layers created by different bonding systems using high resolution SEM. Four different adhesive materials, including self-etching and total-etching systems, were examined: Prime & Bond NT, OptiBond SOLO Plus, Single Bond and Clearfil Protect Bond. All materials were applied to the dentin of extracted human third molars. After cutting the bonded specimens transversely, an anti-collagen type I antibody was incubated on the surface of the dentin-adhesive interface and gold-conjugated secondary antibody was applied to reveal collagen labeling under high resolution SEM. The hybrid layers showed a significant number of collagen fibrils embedded in the resin matrix. The presence of exposed dentin collagen fibrils, as determined by positive labeling with an anti-type I collagen monoclonal antibody, is considered an indication of the presence of incompletely embedded fibrils and, thus, the quality of dentin matrix hybridization. The hybrid layers produced by total-etching systems showed higher labeling compared to those produced by the self-etching system. Positive collagen labeling was also found along the resin tags produced by total-etching adhesive systems.
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PMID:Immunohistochemical analysis of collagen fibrils within the hybrid layer: a FEISEM study. 1547 Aug 76

Several implants for orbital wall fracture treatment are available at the present, but they have drawbacks: resorption, risk for migration and foreign body reaction. Alloplastic resorbable implants would be advantageous: no removal operation and no donor side morbidity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the foreign body reaction, capsule formation and mechanical properties of two bioresorbable implants. PDS and SR-P(L/DL)LA mesh sheet (70/30) with solid frame (96/4) implants (SR-P(L/DL)LA 70,96) were placed into subcutaneous tissue of 24 rats. Immunohistochemistry was used to evaluate reactivity for Tn-C, alpha-actin, type I and III collagens and two mononuclear cells: T-cells and monocyte/ macrophage. GPC, DSC and SEM were performed. Student's t-test or nonparametric Kruskall-Wallis test were used for statistical analysis. Histology of peri-implant capsule exhibited an inner cell-rich zone and an outer connective tissue zone around both materials. Tn-C reactivity was high in the inner and alpha-actin in the outer zone. At the end of the study, the difference of type I collagen versus type III collagen reactivity in inner zone was statistically significant (P<0.0001) as was the difference of type I collagen versus type III collagen reactivity in outer zone (P<0.0001). Immunohistochemistry did not reveal any statistical differences of T-cell and monocyte/macrophage reactivity around PDS versus SR-P(L/DL)LA 70,96 implants, nor any differences as a function of time. PDS were deformed totally after 2 months. SR-P(L/DL)LA 70,96 implants were only slightly deformed during the follow up of 7 months. PDS degraded rapidly in SEM observation. Particles were detaching from surface. SEM observation revealed that polylactide implant was degrading from the surface and the inner porous core became visible. The degradation came visible at 7 months. There were cracks in perpendicular direction towards to the long axis of the filaments. M(w) of PDS decreased fast compared to the polylactide implant. Foreign body reaction was minimal to both materials but continued throughout the whole observation period. Mechanically PDS was poor, it looses its shape totally within 2 months. It cannot be recommended for orbital wall reconstruction. New mesh sheet-frame structure (SR-P(L/DL)LA 70,96) approved to be mechanically adequate for orbital wall reconstruction. It seems not to possess intrinsic memory and retains its shape. The resorption time is significantly longer compared to PDS and is comparable to other studied P(L/DL)LA copolymers. Thus, the new polylactide copolymer implant may support the orbital contents long enough to give way to bone growth over the wall defect.
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PMID:Biodegradable polydioxanone and poly(l/d)lactide implants: an experimental study on peri-implant tissue response. 1597 53


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