Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C1832526 (PCC)
 5,967 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The fasting serum levels of alpha-tocopherol were determined by high-pressure liquid chromatography in 13 patients with chronic pancreatitis of whom 7 were positive for pancreatic calcification (CCP) and 6, negative (NCP) and 10 healthy subjects. The fasting serum levels of alpha-tocopherol were significantly lower in patients with chronic pancreatitis (7.2 +/- 1.1 micrograms/ml for CCP and 7.9 +/- 0.6 for NCP) than in healthy subjects (11.3 +/- 0.7 micrograms/ml). Vitamin E absorption was determined in those with chronic pancreatitis and in healthy subjects after postprandial oral administration of 400 mg of vitamin E, using soft capsules which contained tocopherol nicotinate along with an appropriate amount of a suspension of an ester of fatty acids with glycerol and middle chain triacylglycerol. The mean absorption of vitamin E was 12.7 +/- 2.0 micrograms/ml X hr for healthy subjects, 9.1 +/- 3.1 micrograms/ml X hr for CCP and 13.0 +/- 2.7 micrograms/ml X hr for NCP, respectively. There was no significant difference in vitamin E absorption between patients with chronic pancreatitis and healthy subjects. Further, the rate of hydrolysis of tocopherol nicotinate did not significantly differ between healthy subjects and patients with chronic pancreatitis. It is of interest to note that vitamin E absorption in patients with chronic pancreatitis was increased by the postprandial use of an oily suspension type preparation of tocopherol nicotinate.
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PMID:Comparisons between absorption of vitamin E in patients with chronic pancreatitis and healthy controls: the bioavailability of vitamin E. 373 5

alpha-Tocopherol is synthesized exclusively in oxygenic phototrophs and is known to function as a lipid-soluble antioxidant. Here, we report that alpha-tocopherol also has a novel function independent of its antioxidant properties in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. The photoautotrophic growth rates of wild type and mutants impaired in alpha-tocopherol biosynthesis are identical, but the mutants exhibit elevated photosynthetic activities and glycogen levels. When grown photomixotrophically with glucose (Glc), however, these mutants cease growth within 24 h and exhibit a global macronutrient starvation response associated with nitrogen, sulfur, and carbon, as shown by decreased phycobiliprotein content (35% of the wild-type level) and accumulation of the nblA1-nblA2, sbpA, sigB, sigE, and sigH transcripts. Photosystem II activity and carboxysome synthesis are lost in the tocopherol mutants within 24 h of photomixotrophic growth, and the abundance of carboxysome gene (rbcL, ccmK1, ccmL) and ndhF4 transcripts decreases to undetectable levels. These results suggest that alpha-tocopherol plays an important role in optimizing photosynthetic activity and macronutrient homeostasis in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Several lines of evidence indicate that increased oxidative stress in the tocopherol mutants is unlikely to be the underlying cause of photosystem II inactivation and Glc-induced lethality. Interestingly, insertional inactivation of the pmgA gene, which encodes a putative serine-threonine kinase similar to RsbW and RsbT in Bacillus subtilis, results in a similar increase in glycogen and Glc-induced lethality. Based on these results, we propose that alpha-tocopherol plays a nonantioxidant regulatory role in photosynthesis and macronutrient homeostasis through a signal transduction pathway that also involves PmgA.
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PMID:alpha-Tocopherol plays a role in photosynthesis and macronutrient homeostasis of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 that is independent of its antioxidant function. 1656 98