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)

An 18-month-old girl with virilization was found to have an encapsulated right adrenal carcinoma (2 x3 cm) with great variation in nuclear size, frequent mitoses, and possible blood vessel invasion. Preoperative urinary excretions of 17-ketosteroids, androsterone, etiocholanolone, dehydroepiandrosterone, testosterone, pregnanetriol, 3alpha-androstenol, and 3 beta-androstadienol were elevated; all showed a noticeable decrease postoperatively. Cortisol acetate, given preoperatively, produced a definite decrease in the urinary excretion of 17-ketosteroids and dehydroepiandrosterone; administration of corticotropin resulted in an increase in levels of urinary 17-ketosteroids, 17-hydroxycorticosteroids, and pregnanetriol. Urinary testosterone and 3beta-androstadienol may have diagnostic value since neither was suppressed by cortisol therapy. The behavior of both 3alpha-androstenol and 3beta-androstadienol in this study suggests that they are of adrenal origin.
 ...
PMID:Studies of 16-androstenes in an infant with virilizing adrenal carcinoma. 15 37

This report considers the potential usefulness of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) determinations in diagnosis and in prognosis for therapy of patients with carcinoma of the lung but without clinical Cushing's syndrome. The report is based on radioimmunoassay data from 129 patients, including 62 with lung cancers and 67 with nonmalignant pulmonary conditions. Elevated plasma ACTH was found in 21 of 24 patients with untreated cancer and the hormone was detected in tumor extracts and/or bronchial washings from the remaining 3. Elevation of plasma ACTH was found in only 10 of 38 treated patients. Absence of clinical Cushing's syndrome in spite of high plasma ACTH concentrations is explained by the observation that the predominant form of ectopic ACTH in plasma is immunoreactive but nonbioactive 'big' ACTH. Prolonged survival, for longer than 19 months, was observed in only 5 patients: all patients with low plasma ACTH after resection of the lung tumor and 2 of 3 patients with low plasma ACTH without therapy. ACTH was found in all available malignant tissue, primary and metastatic, from the lung carcinoma group,but not in normal lung or in 5 tumors metastatic to the lung. Of the 39 patients diagnosed initially to have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 14 showed plasma ACTH elevation. However, 3 of these patients with the highest concentrations subsequently manifested carcinoma or carcinoma in situ.
 ...
PMID:Ectopic production of big ACTH in carcinoma of the lung. Its clinical usefulness as a biologic marker. 16 43

Big corticotropin (adrenocroticotropic hormone, ACTH), an immunoreactive form of ACTH with low biological activity and which elutes in the void volume on Sephadex G-50 gel filtration, is found in plasma and extracts of human pituitary and tumour. Controlled tryptic digestion of big ACTH releases a product with full corticotropic activity which is indistinguishable from the (1-39) ACTH with respect to size, charge and susceptibility to tryptic digestion. Immunoreactive ACTH, predominantly in the big form, is found in virtually all tissue extracts of carcinoma primary to or metastatic from the lung, but not of carcinoma metastatic to the lung, and even in precancerous lung lesions. The absence of clinical Cushing syndrome in patients with carcinoma of the lung and moderate elevation of plasma concentrations of ACTH is due to the low biological activity of big ACTH. Prolonged survival (for more than two years) of patients with lung carcinoma has been observed only in those whose plasma ACTH is low before therapy or after resection of the lung tumour. Rabbit, rat and mouse pituitaries contain an intermediate sized ACTH but the usual 1-39 peptide predominates in the pituitaries of monkey, sheep, dog, cat and guinea pig, as well as man. The hormonal form of ACTH appears to be an important factor regulating the cortisol/corticosterone ratio in mammalian adrenal corticoid secretion because administration of porcine ACTH to rabbits alters the adrenal secretory pattern so as to decrease corticosterone production and increase cortisol production.
 ...
PMID:Multiple forms of corticotropin (adrenocorticotropic hormone, ACTH) and their significance. 18 Dec 23

Cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP phosphodiesterase activities (3',5'-cyclic AMP 5'-nucleotidohydrolase, EC 3.1.4.17) were investigated in the human thyroid gland from patients with hyperthyroidism. Low substrate concentration (0.4 muM) was used. About 60% of the cyclic-AMP and 80% of the cyclic-GMP hydrolytic activities in the homogenate were obtained in the soluble fraction (105 000 X g supernatant). The thyroid gland contains two forms of cyclic-AMP phosphodiesterase, one with a Km of 1.3-10(-5) M and the second with a Km of 2-10(-6) M. Cyclic-AMP and cyclic-GMP phosphodiesterase were purified by gel filtration on a Sepharose-6B column. Cyclic-AMP phosphodiesterase activities were found in a broad area corresponding to molecular weights ranging from approx. 200 000 to 250 000 and cyclic-GMP phosphodiesterase activity was found in a single area corresponding to a molecular weight of 260 000. Cyclis-AMP phosphodiesterase activities were stimulated by the protein activator which was found in human thyroid and this stimulation was dependent on Ca2+. Stimulation of cyclic-AMP phosphodiesterase by the activator was not significant even in the presence of enough Ca2+. The effect of D,L-triiodothyronine, D,L-thyroxine, L-diiodotyrosine, L-monoiodotyrosine, L-thyronine, L-diiodothyronine, thyrotropin, hydrocortisone, adrenocorticotropin, cyclic-AMP and cyclic-GMP on the phosphodiesterase activities was studied. Cyclic-AMP, cyclic-GMP, D,L-triiosothyronine, D,L-thyroxine, adrenocorticotropin and hydrocortisone where found to inhibit the phophodiesterase. Triiodothyronine and thyroxine inhibited cyclic-AMP phosphodiesterase more effectively than cyclic-GMP phosphodiesterase. Thyroxine was a more potent inhibitor than triiodothyronine. The concentration of cyclic AMP producing a 50% inhibition of cyclic-GMP phosphodiesterase activity was 5-10(-5) M, while the concentration of cyclic GMP producing a 50% inhibition of cyclic-AMP phosphodiesterase was 3-10(-3) M. Both cyclic-AMP and cyclic-GMP phosphodiesterase activities in the homogenate of hyperthyroidism, thyroid carcinoma and adenoma were higher than in normal thyroid tissue, when assayed with a low concentration of the substrate (0.4 muM). When a higher concentration (1 mM) of cyclic nucleotides was used as the substrate, cyclic-AMP hydrolytic activity in adenoma tissue was similar to that of normal tissue, while the other activities were higher than normal.
 ...
PMID:Human thyroid cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase. Its characterization and the effect of several hormones on the activity. 18 33

Ninety-one human tumors, including various common carcinomas, low-grade malignant tumors, and benign tumors, were transplanted into athymic nude mice. Tumor take was confirmed histologically for 22 neoplasms at the initial transplantation, and 14 serially transplantable tumors were established, including some hitherto unestablished or unreported, such as lung and hepatic cell carcinomas. Among the 91 tumors were 21, 14, and 13 carcinomas of the lung, stomach, and breast, respectively. Transplantability was highest in lung carcinomas (10/21), followed by gastric carcinomas (2/14) and breast carcinomas (1/13). Morphology of original tumors was retained well in most transplanted tumors, but desmoplastic or scirrhous tumors, such as gastric and breast carcinomas, tended to become medullary with a decrease in amount of tumor stroma. The ability to produce mucin in gastric carcinomas or melanin in malignant melanoma was maintained in serially transplantable tumors. In addition, ectopic production of adrenocorticotropin and beta melanocyte-stimulating hormone continued in a transplanted small cell carcinoma of the lung. Preliminary results were obtained on hormone dependency of the transplantable breast carcinoma and on alpha1-fetoprotein in the transplantable hepatic cell carcinoma.
 ...
PMID:Transplantation of human tumors in nude mice. 18 24

This study deals with 11 cases of thyroid medullary carcinoma of which 7 were familial cases including 3 cases of Sipple's syndrome and 4 cases of sporadic cases. There were also 2 cases of Cushing's syndrome. In addition to the previously described English literatures about human medullary carcinoma of the thyroid, the rod-shaped body with cristae and an abundant glycogen particles in the cytoplasm, nuclear inclusion bodies of cytoplasmic invagination and microvilli at the surface membrane of gland formation were found in our cases. The mean and mode diameters of secretory granules of all familial cases with only calcitonin secretion were larger than those of the sporadic cases with ectopic ACTH and beta-MSH in addition to calcitonin secretion. Ultrastructural study on non-cancerous follicles of grossly normal thyroid of two cases of early familial medullary carcinoma disclosed apparently increased C-cells which were not intrathyroidal metastases. It is supposed that the increased C-cells in the thyroid of the familial cases are multicentric C-cell hyperplasia.
 ...
PMID:Ultrastructural study of thyroid medullary carcinoma. 20 Nov 48

Bilateral malignant polyadenomas of adrenals seem to be rare. They involve either a double primary adrenal tumour, or a metastasis of a controlateral tumour. In the observation reported here, the evolution is characterized by periods of central stimulation with partial autonomy, and periods of tumoral autonomy with central inertness. Pathological findings consist of coexistence of various histological aspects (atrophy, hyperplasia, benign adenoma, carcinoma) suggesting the successive steps of a very particuliar adrenal carcinogenesis. Such findings allow to discuss the following physiopathological mechanism: a stimulation by ACTH might have resulted initially in a preneoplasic hyperplasia, then in an incompletely autonomous tumour, and finally in an autonomous tumour. Accordingly, from a practical and therapeutic point of view, it would be suitable, after removal of an adrenal tumour, especially of one with demonstrated ACTH-dependance, to suppress totally endogenous ACTH by cortisol or cortisone therapy, in order to reduce the occurence of corticotropin stimulation of possibly remaining malignant adrenal cells.
 ...
PMID:[Partially hormone dependent bilateral malignant polyadenomatous hyperplasia]. 20 15

A continuous line (DMS-79) of human pulmonary small cell carcinoma cells was shown to secrete immunoreactive adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), lipotropin, and beta-endorphin concomitantly into the culture medium. Gel filtration of the culture medium demonstrated at least five components: high molecular weight material(s) that had ACTH, lipotropin, and beta-endorphin immunoreactivities and materials similar to ACTH, beta-lipotropin, gamma-lipotropin, and beta-endorphin in their immunoreactivities and apparent molecular weights. The same components were observed when gel filtration was carried out in 6 M guanidine-HCl, and the high molecular weight material(s) appeared to consist of more than one component, with molecular weights in the range of 15,000-40,000. Immune affinity chromatography of the high molecular weight component(s) from gel filtration with a specific anti-(1-24)ACTH serum demonstrated that the ACTH, lipotropin, and beta-endorphin immunoreactivities were possessed by the same molecule(s), suggesting that ACTH, lipotropins, and beta-endorphin were derived from a common, high molecular weight precursor.
 ...
PMID:Corticotropin, lipotropin, and beta-endorphin production by a human nonpituitary tumor in culture: evidence for a common precursor. 21 15

The case of a 38-year-old female with primary argyrophil cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix is reported. Two years after operation the patient developed widespread metastases with typical Cushing's syndrome. Microscopically, the tumor consisted of solid anaplastic cells, adenocarcinoma, and squamous cells. The plasma levels of ACTH and cortisol were elevated. Many cells of both the primary and metastatic tumors showed argyrophilia. Almost all the cells of the metastases contained numerous round secretory granules measuring about 117 micrometers in diameter. Small rod-shaped or larger round secretory granules, measuring 250 and 430 micrometers respectively, were also found in a few of these cells. The tumors in the right lung, pancreas, and kidney contained high levels of ACTH, beta-MSH, serotonin, histamine, and amylase. This is the first report of ectopic production of these five substances from argyrophil cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix.
 ...
PMID:Argyrophil cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix with ectopic production of ACTH, beta-MSH, serotonin, histamine, and amylase. 22 79

A 64-yr-old female presented with severe osteoporosis and easy bruisability of over 2-yr duration. Biopsy of a neck mass revealed medullary carcinoma of the thyroid. Subsequently, lymphangitic pulmonary metastases were demonstrated which had been present radiographically for at least 4 yr. Basal serum calcitonin was markedly elevated and increased during calcium infusion. The diagnosis of ectopic ACTH syndrome was first entertained when hypokalemic alkalosis was observed during evaluation of her carcinoma. Elevated urinary 17-hydroxycorticosteroids, 17-ketosteroids, plasma cortisol, and immunoreactive plasma ACTH levels were documented. Adrenal steroidogenesis seemed to suppress on high dose dexamethasone. The primary tumor and its metastases contained high concentrations of immunoreactive ACTH and beta-melanocyte-stimulating hormone. Hepatic metastases contained extremely high concentrations of calcitonin. In contrast to the usual presentation of the ectopic ACTH syndrome as primarily hypokalemic alkalosis and glucose intolerance, patients with relatively benign and indolent ACTH-secreting tumors, such as certain cases of medullary carcinoma of the thyroid, may present with more typical signs and symptoms of Cushing's syndrome. The more pronounced cushingoid features in this latter group presumably reflects a more prolonged period of exposure to elevated glucocorticoid levels. Ten cases of ACTH-secreting medullary carcinoma of the thyroid from the literature are discussed. Extopic ACTH production by such tumors should be considered in the evaluation of patients with Cushing's syndrome or unexplained severe osteopenia.
 ...
PMID:ACTH-secreting medullary carcinoma of the thyroid presenting a severe idiopathic osteoporosis and senile purpura: report of a case and review of the literature. 23 64


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >>