Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P02794 (ferritin)
 17,525 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Asbestos-associated malignancies are one of the major industrial hazards of recent decades and will continue to be so until beyond the end of the century. It has been estimated that, in the United States alone, there will be 131,200 cancer deaths as a result of asbestos exposure. At present the early lesions are detected radiologically, by which time intervention is no longer effective. The aim of this study was to test the value of a battery of serum biomarkers in the early detection of malignancy and in distinguishing between the early stages of mesothelioma and bronchogenic carcinoma. Many of the biomarkers had no discriminating value but on the basis of four such markers (namely TPA, CEA, HA and ferritin) it has been possible to distinguish between the late stages of the two malignancies and asbestosis. The results are discussed in terms of their possible application to the detection of early pre-malignant lesions in a screened population of asbestos-exposed persons, with the aim of attempting to prevent cancer death in such early detected cases.
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PMID:Biomarker assessments in asbestos-exposed workers as indicators for selective prevention of mesothelioma or bronchogenic carcinoma: rationale and practical implementations. 184 86

Ninety asbestosis patients were examined clinically with special emphasis on the function of the peripheral and the central nervous system. Serum specimens were analyzed for carcinoembryonic antigen(s) (CEA), ferritin, and beta 2-microglobulin (beta 2m) content. The patients were classified into four subgroups: (1) those with peripheral neuropathy, (2) those with involvement of central nervous system, (3) those with both types of neurological signs, and (4) those with normal neurological status. The levels of serum CEA, ferritin, and beta 2m were elevated in all four subgroups. No statistically significant differences were found between the groups in the prevalence of elevated values of the three tumor markers (equal or above the following limits: CEA, 5 micrograms/liter; ferritin, 400 micrograms/liter, and beta 2m, 3 mg/liter). The patients currently smoking had a higher level of serum CEA than nonsmokers or exsmokers, but the differences were not statistically significant. In the subgroup that comprised those asbestosis patients in whom the disease could be considered progressive according to the ILO 1980 classification of the chest radiographs, the mean level of CEA in serum was higher than that of the patient group without such progression of the disease (p less than 0.05, Student's t test). Although the prevalence of abnormal neurological signs was high in these asbestosis patients, no obvious correlation was found between the neurological findings and the tumor markers studied.
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PMID:Tumor markers and neurological signs in asbestosis patients. 608 58

Asbestosis patients have a high cumulative risk of cancer: four of ten asbestosis patients develop cancer. Paraneoplastic involvement of the nervous system, peripheral neuropathy in particular, is often encountered in cancer patients, even at very early stages of the disease. In order to estimate the occurrence of paraneoplastic neuropathy among asbestosis patients, we formed a small cohort (115 asbestosis patients, mean age 56 years, mean duration of exposure to asbestos 21 years) in 1979. Neurological examination revealed slight peripheral neuropathy in 44 (39%) of the patients, 24 (22%) of whom also had central nervous system signs (disturbances in gait and posture, memory and fine movements). The prevalence of peripheral neuropathy among asbestosis patients was higher than among various referent patients (fibrosing alveolitis, diagnosed solvent poisoning and gynaecological carcinoma). No significant differences were found between the patients with and without peripheral neuropathy regarding the following parameters: pulmonary function tests, tumour markers (CEA, ferritin, beta-2-microglobulin), antinuclear antibodies, C3, C4 and circulating immune complexes. Nevertheless, at group level, the asbestosis patients had increased levels of the three tumour markers. Estimates based on the data accumulated so far (10 cancer patients) show that within three years we shall probably have a sufficient number of cancer cases to draw some conclusions about the value of neuropathy in the early diagnosis of occupational cancer.
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PMID:Asbestosis, the nervous system and cancer. 649 37

The serum ferritin concentration has been determined by an immunoradiometric assay in 90 subjects with a variety of pulmonary diseases. No association between ferritin concentrations and finger clubbing has been found in any of the diseases studied. Ferritin levels were significantly raised in the subjects with bronchial carcinoma, but were not useful in monitoring recurrence of the tumour. Pulmonary artery and pulmonary vein ferritin concentrations were similar to systemic venous concentrations. It is therefore unlikely that the tumour releases ferritin into the pulmonary circulation. Ferritin levels were raised in patients with acute pneumonias but did not correlate with the total white cell count or erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Serum ferritin concentrations were also increased in a variety of chronic lung diseases but were normal in subjects with asbestosis.
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PMID:Ferritin, finger clubbing, and lung disease. 731 44

Redox cycling is a characteristic of transition metals such as iron. Iron is hypothesized to have been actively involved in the birth of primitive life on earth through the generation of reducing equivalents in the presence of UV light. Iron is an essential metal in mammals for oxygen transport by hemoglobin and for the function of many enzymes including catalase and cytochromes. However, the "free" or "catalytic" form of iron mediates the production of reactive oxygen species via the Fenton reaction and induces oxidative stress. Serum "free" iron is observed in rare situations such as in severe hemochromatosis in which serum transferrin is saturated. However, it is known that superoxide can release "free" iron from ferritin and hemosiderin in the cell. "Free" iron is quite cytotoxic as well as mutagenic and carcinogenic. Iron compounds were first reported to induce sarcomas in rats by Richmond in 1959. Thereafter, several iron-induced carcinogenesis models were established, including the ferric nitrilotriacetate model by Okada and colleagues. Iron may have a role in the carcinogenic process of other transition metals such as copper and nickel, or other kinds of carcinogens such as nitrosamine and even virus-induced carcinogenesis. In humans, genetic hemochromatosis and asbestosis are two major diseases associated with iron-induced carcinogenesis. There is an increasing number of reports of an association between increased body iron stores and increased risk of cancer. Iron-induced oxidative stress results in two possible consequences: (1) redox regulation failure that leads to lipid peroxidation and oxidative DNA and protein damage; (2) redox regulation that activates a variety of reducing and oxystress-protective mechanisms via signal transduction. Both consequences appear to play a role in iron-induced carcinogenesis.
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PMID:Iron-induced carcinogenesis: the role of redox regulation. 890 96

We tested the postulate that iron homeostasis is altered among patients diagnosed to have asbestosis. Lung tissue from six individuals diagnosed to have had asbestosis at autopsy was stained for iron, ferritin, divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1), and ferroportin 1 (FPN1). Slides from six individuals having pneumonectomy for lung cancer were employed as controls. Lung tissue from those patients with asbestosis demonstrated stainable iron, whereas control lung tissue did not. Staining for this metal was observed predominantly in airway and alveolar macrophages. Expression of the iron-related proteins ferritin, DMT1, and FPN1 was elevated in lung tissue from the six asbestosis patients relative to controls. This increased expression of iron-transport and iron-storage proteins was evident in both airway and alveolar epithelial cells. Asbestos bodies were abundant in lung tissue from patients diagnosed to have had asbestosis. While staining for iron, ferruginous bodies did not demonstrate uptake of antibodies for ferritin, DMT1, and FPN1. We conclude that iron homeostasis is altered in lung disease among those diagnosed to have asbestosis with an accumulation of the metal and a modified expression of iron-related proteins being evident.
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PMID:Iron and Iron-Related Proteins in Asbestosis. 2675 21