Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P01189 (beta-endorphin)
 21,003 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The aim of this study was to determine the significance of the "coronary factor" in patients with essential hypertension (EH). Electrocardiogram Holter monitoring was performed in 61 patients with EH stage II (according to the World Health Organization criteria). Silent, ie, painless ST-segment depression, was found in 34 patients on whom echocardiography, a treadmill test, and transesophageal pacing were performed. In 21 patients with EH and silent ischemia, the examination included 201Tl stress scintigraphy, coronary angiography, and a platelet aggregation test. In 15 patients, catecholamines and beta-endorphins were obtained in blood samples during silent ischemia. 201Tl scintigraphy showed transient defects of perfusion without clearance abnormalities (group I) and with clearance abnormalities (group II). The patients in group I had more severe left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and a significantly higher platelet aggregation response to 0.5 mumol/L adenosine diphosphate; one patient in this group had coronary atherosclerosis. LVH and the platelet aggregation response was less pronounced in the patients in group II, but atherosclerotic lesions of a coronary artery were observed in four patients. In both groups, norepinephrine and beta-endorphin levels were increased during silent episodes of ischemia. The results suggest that there are different pathogenetic mechanisms of coronary insufficiency in patients with EH, a hypertensive heart, and silent ischemia.
 ...
PMID:Silent myocardial ischemia in patients with essential hypertension. 163 37

The results of bicycle ergometry and pharmacological tests with isoproterenol and dipyridamol, 24-hour monitoring and blood levels of endogeneous opioids were studied in 99 females with chest pain who had undergone angiography. Coronary microcirculation was examined in 29 patients by introducing albumin microspheres into the left ventricle. The angiography revealed coronary atherosclerosis in 30 patients, whereas its signs were not found in 8 females with documented coronary heart disease (CHD). The predictive value of positive exercise tests in females with angina pectoris was higher for the diagnosis of CHD, including its types without coronary atherosclerosis. In patients with cardialgias, the predictive values of exercise tests were equally low for the diagnosis of coronary atherosclerosis, vasospastic and microvascular CHD types. The patients with cardialgias caused by autonomic dyshormonal myocardiodystrophy showed low blood beta-endorphin and leu-enkephalin levels.
 ...
PMID:[Diagnostic usefulness of ECG changes in response to exercise in women with various forms of ischemic heart disease]. 175 7

We studied the effects of psychosocial stress (S) and diazepam (D) on plasma lipids, adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), and corticosterone (B) levels of cockerels fed an atherogenic diet (AD) consisting of 2% cholesterol plus 5% cottonseed oil added to plain mash (PM). Seventy-six eight-week-old DeKalb cockerels were randomly assigned to the following groups: I. PM; II. PM + D; III. PM + S; ;IV. PM + S + D; V. AD; VI. AD + D; VII. AD + S and VIII. AD + S + D. S was induced by housing two birds to a cage and pairing them to a different bird daily. D was administered daily by gavage. Plasma ACTH and B levels were analyzed by RIA. Aortic atherosclerosis was grossly graded on a scale of 0-4 and also by gravimetric planimetry. After 10 weeks: 1. S birds had a significantly higher incidence and severity (p less than 0.04) of aortic atherogenesis and elevated ACTH and B levels (p less than 0.001) compared to unstressed PM groups. 2. AD significantly elevated the plasma levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, and the lipoprotein cholesterol that was precipitated by heparin-manganese (LDL-C + VLDL-C), compared to initial and/or PM levels (p less than 0.001). AD birds had a greater incidence and more severe aortic lesions in comparison to PM groups (p less than 0.002). Plasma hormone levels were significantly lower in birds fed AD alone compared to controls and stressed birds. 3. D significantly reduced the severity of aortic atheroma as well as decreased hormone levels in all treated groups (p less than 0.001). Therefore, we conclude that aortic atherosclerosis in cockerels can be induced by S and/or AD, and D can markedly reduce atherogenesis under these conditions. Since both AD and D decreased plasma ACTH and B levels, the anti-atherogenic action of D in these birds does not seem to directly involve these pituitary-adrenocortical hormones.
 ...
PMID:Effects of diazepam, psychosocial stress and dietary cholesterol on pituitary-adrenocortical hormone levels and experimental atherosclerosis. 185 May 93

Chronic treatment of rats with dexfenfluramine decreased the concentrations of circulating corticosterone, fatty acid, glycerol, and triacylglycerol after feeding a test load of fructose. It also decreased the rise in adrenalin in the blood of rats that were anaesthetized with urethane. These effects of dexfenfluramine probably result from changes in the metabolism of 5-HT in the CNS and consequent alterations in hormonal balance. It is proposed that the long-term metabolic effects of dexfenfluramine could be explained by a decrease in the effectiveness of stress hormones (e.g., glucocorticoids, corticotropin, catecholamines, glucagon) in regulating metabolism since these hormones antagonize many of the actions of insulin. This hypothesis also identifies the possibility that the ability of dexfenfluramine to decrease an exaggerate stress response could alleviate some of the potential risk factors associated with atherosclerosis including obesity and maturity onset diabetes.
 ...
PMID:Metabolic and hormonal effects of dexfenfluramine on stress situations. 318 Jan 10

The effect of ceruletide (CRL), a synthetic decapeptide analogue of cholecystokinin, on rest pain and arterial blood flow was evaluated in 8 patients with advanced, occlusive atherosclerosis of the lower extremities. CRL 1, 2, or 4 ng kg-1 or placebo were infused intravenously in random order, and in a double-blind fashion. Pain relief, assessed by a scoring system, was significantly better (p less than 0.01) following the 2 and 4 ng kg-1 doses of CRL (2.71 and 2.66, respectively) than following placebo (0.75). Arterial blood flow was not affected by either CRL in any dose or by placebo. Pretreatment with naloxone, a pure opioid antagonist, abolished the analgesic effect of CRL. Following the 2 ng dose of CRL, beta-endorphin levels were significantly elevated from a basal value of 125 +/- 15 pg/ml to 191 +/- 35 pg/ml 5 h after CRL administration (p less than 0.05). Circulating levels of ACTH, prolactin and GH were not affected by CRL. It is concluded that CRL was effective in relieving ischaemic rest pain, and that the mechanism was related to the release of endogenous opioids.
 ...
PMID:Effect of ceruletide on rest pain in patients with arterial insufficiency of the lower extremity. 629 Feb 28

The patient was a 26-year-old man with Cushing's disease who underwent transsphenoidal microscopic surgery for a pituitary microadenoma. His postoperative course was uneventful, but he died suddenly five years after the operation. At autopsy, a ruptured dissecting aneurysm with marked atherosclerosis was observed in the aorta. In the pituitary, a small focus of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) producing adenoma, possibly residual adenoma, was detected and Crooke's degeneration was observed in the non-tumorous pituitary gland. But immunohistochemical patterns of pituitary hormones in the non-tumorous pituitary gland were normal and the adrenal cortex was unremarkable. In the hypothalamus, corticotropin-releasing hormone immunoreactivity was not detected and arginine vasopressin was sporadically positive. Considering these findings, this patient may have developed subclinical hypercortisolism due to the residual adenoma at the time of autopsy, despite clinical remission. Cushing's syndrome is considered to be a risk factor dissecting aneurysm, and in this case the metabolic changes in Cushing's disease may have influenced the development of the dissecting aneurysm. Periodic cardiovascular re-evaluations should therefore be performed when there is clinical remission of Cushing's syndrome.
 ...
PMID:A case of ruptured dissecting aneurysm 5 years after pituitary microsurgical treatment of Cushing's disease: autopsy findings in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. 795 28

The effect of short-term nicotine consumption on endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels was studied in 10 male healthy smokers. Volunteers smoked in random order on 3 separate days a low-tar cigarette or a high-tar cigarette, or were studied without having smoked (no-cigarette experiment). ET-1, corticotropin, and cortisol levels, heart rate, and blood pressure were determined before and 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes after smoking. In contrast to results obtained after smoking a low-tar cigarette or not smoking, smoking a high-tar cigarette resulted in a significant increase in ET-1 levels within 10 minutes, followed by an increase in corticotropin levels within 20 minutes after smoking. Thirty minutes after smoking, cortisol levels were higher after a high-tar cigarette compared with a low-tar cigarette or no smoking. Increases in heart rate and systolic blood pressure were likewise higher after smoking a high-tar cigarette than after smoking a low-tar cigarette. In conclusion, it is tempting to speculate that ET-1 may indeed act as the long-searched-for link between vasopressin and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and thus play an essential role in the stimulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. In addition, these results suggest that the increase in the level of ET-1, a powerful vasoconstrictor and mitogen, may play an important part in the disease mechanisms of atherosclerosis arising from smoking.
 ...
PMID:Elevated endothelin-1 levels after cigarette smoking. 813 72

The risk of atherosclerosis, a leading cause of cardiovascular disease and death, is inversely related to plasma levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, although the mechanism of this protective effect is unclear. The class B scavenger receptor, SR-BI, is the first HDL receptor to be well defined at a molecular level and is a mediator of selective cholesterol uptake in vitro. It is expressed most abundantly in steroidogenic tissues, where it is coordinately regulated with steroidogenesis by adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and oestrogen, and in the liver, where its expression in rats is suppressed by oestrogen. Here we show that adenovirus-mediated, hepatic overexpression of SR-BI in mice on both sinusoidal and canalicular surfaces of hepatocytes results in the virtual disappearance of plasma HDL and a substantial increase in biliary cholesterol. SR-BI may directly mediate these effects by increasing hepatic HDL cholesterol uptake or by increasing cholesterol secretion into bile, or both. These results indicate that SR-BI may be important in hepatic HDL metabolism, in determining plasma HDL concentrations, and in controlling cholesterol concentrations in bile, and thus may influence the development and progression of atherosclerosis and gallstone disease.
 ...
PMID:Overexpression of the HDL receptor SR-BI alters plasma HDL and bile cholesterol levels. 916 28

Disruptions in homeostasis (ie, stress) place demands on the body that are met by the activation of 2 systems, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). Stressor-induced activation of the HPA axis and the SNS results in a series of neural and endocrine adaptations known as the "stress response" or "stress cascade." The stress cascade is responsible for allowing the body to make the necessary physiological and metabolic changes required to cope with the demands of a homeostatic challenge. Here we discuss the key elements of the HPA axis and the neuroendocrine response to stress. A challenge to homeostasis (a stressor) initiates the release of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) from the hypothalamus, which in turn results in release of adrenocortiotropin hormone (ACTH) into general circulation. ACTH then acts on the adrenal cortex resulting in release of a species-specific glucocorticoid into blood. Glucocorticoids act in a negative feedback fashion to terminate the release of CRH. The body strives to maintain glucocorticoid levels within certain boundaries and interference at any level of the axis will influence the other components via feedback loops. Over- or underproduction of cortisol can result in the devastating diseases of Cushing's and Addison's, respectively, but less severe dysregulation of the HPA axis can still have adverse health consequences. These include the deposition of visceral fat as well as cardiovascular disease (eg, atherosclerosis). Thus, chronic stress with its physical and psychological ramifications remains a persistent clinical problem for which new pharmacological treatment strategies are aggressively sought. To date, treatments have been based on the existing knowledge concerning the brain areas and neurobiological substrates that subserve the stress response. Thus, the CRH blocker, antalarmin, is being investigated as a treatment for chronic stress because it prevents CRH from having its ultimate effect-a protracted release of glucocorticoids. New therapeutic strategies will depend on the discovery of novel therapeutic targets at the cellular and intracellular level. Advances in molecular biology provide the tools and new opportunities for identifying these therapeutic targets.
 ...
PMID:Neuroendocrine aspects of the response to stress. 1204 May 34

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) are the principal C19 steroids produced by the human adrenals. Their plasma levels decline to less than 20% of their maximal value during aging. Because these steroids appear to play a role in the maintenance of immunity, musculoskeletal integrity, and cardiovascular health, age-associated declines in adrenal androgen production may contribute to decreased immune function, osteoporosis, and atherosclerosis. Production of DHEA and DHEAS has been localized to the zona reticularis (ZR) of the adrenal cortex and can be modulated by intra-adrenal or extra-adrenal modulators. Extra-adrenal modulators include corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), insulin, and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta). Intra-adrenal regulators include enzymes and proteins involved in the steroidogenic pathway, specifically 17,20 lyase activity and DHEA sulfotransferase (DST). The natural histories of the emergence of adrenal androgen production and the ontogeny of the ZR appear to correlate closely. In addition, aging results in a decline in adrenal androgen production, and our data suggest a parallel diminution in the area represented by the ZR. This decline in the ZR may result from apoptosis, cellular and humoral immunity, or a reduction in the replicative capacity of the cells of the ZR.
 ...
PMID:Adrenal androgens and aging. 1563 95


1 2 3 Next >>