Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P61278 (somatostatin)
 22,083 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This review integrates the clinical aspects of systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma) and scleroderma-like conditions with new knowledge of the control of blood vessel tone and the role of anoxia in the activation of connective tissues leading to fibrosis. Serologic tests, high resolution computed tomographic scanning, bronchoalveolar lavage, and physiologic assessment of pulmonary gas diffusion are compared as diagnostic tools and as means of quantitating internal organ involvement. Treatment of Raynaud's disease and phenomenon, management of scleroderma renal crisis, and new means for improving gastrointestinal function with octreotide, the somatostatin analogue, also are discussed. The relationship between idiopathic forms of SSc and eosinophilic fasciitis/eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome caused by L-tryptophan ingestion and the scleroderma-like disease associated with silicone breast implants also is discussed.
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PMID:The many faces of scleroderma. 135 85

In a previous study it was shown that Raynaud patients during ischemic attacks displayed significantly lower levels of vasoactive intestinal polypeptides (VIP) in cubital vein plasma than did normal subjects in the same relatively cold environments. Low-frequency transcutaneous nerve stimulation (TNS), producing widespread cutaneous vasodilatation, was associated with a 30-35% increase in plasma VIP in both groups. In the present study parallel observations were made in some of the same subjects under the same experimental conditions with regard to six other gastrointestinal peptides: somatostatin, motilin, pancreatic polypeptide (PP), secretin, gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP), and cholecystokinin (CCK), determined radioimmunochemically. Except for CCK, the mean plasma levels of all these gut peptides were similarly lower in the Raynaud patients than in the normal subjects in cold environments. However, TNS did not induce significant increases in the plasma levels of any of these 6 peptides. These findings appear to place VIP in a different functional category than the other gut peptides.
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PMID:Lower plasma levels of some gastrointestinal peptides in Raynaud's disease. Influence of transcutaneous nerve stimulation. 387 78