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)

The neural and hormonal peptide content of rectal biopsy specimens from 10 patients with chronic autonomic failure, 10 patients with chronic gastrointestinal Chagas' disease, and 13 controls was studied with radioimmunoassay and immunocytochemistry. In the patients with Chagas' disease the mean concentrations of rectal vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, enteroglucagon, substance P, and somatostatin were all less than half of those in controls and in patients with chronic autonomic failure. Immunocytochemistry revealed a considerable reduction in the number and immunostaining of the peptide-containing cells and nerves. Concentrations of regulatory peptides in the rectum are thus reduced in association with intrinsic but not extrinsic autonomic neuropathy.
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PMID:Neural and hormonal peptides in rectal biopsy specimens from patients with Chagas' disease and chronic autonomic failure. 615 42

Patients with the digestive form of chronic Chagas' disease exhibit abnormally increased gastrin release, possibly caused by antral gastrin cell (G cell) hyperfunction. In order to identify the mechanisms underlying this abnormality, we used an immunohistochemical method to assess the population of antral somatostatin-producing cells (D cells) in chagasic patients, since somatostatin is known to be the main inhibitory factor of gastrin secretion. Samples (N = 11) of endoscopic antral biopsies taken from 16 Chagas' disease patients and 13 control subjects were studied. Antral D and G cell populations were determined by an immunohistochemical technique using highly specific antibodies against somatostatin and gastrin. There was no significant difference between Chagas' disease and control groups regarding G cell population (number of cells/mm reported as median (range): 70.0 (23.7-247.0) vs 98.1 (52.7-169.4), P > 0.10). In contrast, the number of antral D cells in Chagas' disease patients was significantly lower than in controls (16.4 (6.9-54.4) vs 59.3 (29.6-113.8), P < 0.05). Chronic superficial gastritis and infection with Helicobacter pylori were more frequent in chagasic patients than in controls, but there was no demonstrable association between these factors and the reduction of the number of antral D cells. These data suggest that reduction in the number of antral somatostatin-producing cells, which should lead to reduced inhibition of gastrin cell activity, may play a role in the increased gastrin secretion observed in Chagas' disease patients.
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PMID:Lower density of antral somatostatin-immunoreactive cells in the digestive form of chronic Chagas' disease. 919 44

Histopathological and functional changes in the pancreas were studied in 94 hamsters infected and reinfected with Trypanosoma cruzi VIC strain and in 73 non-infected normal controls. Infection in each animal was verified by microhematocrit, hemoculture, specific peroxidase anti-peroxidase, polymerase chain reaction and seroagglutination. Blood glucose and insulin were determined. The number of islets per section and the number of islet cells marked with antibodies were counted. Insulitis, neuritis, fibrosis, atrophy and inflammatory infiltrates were evaluated. Experimental chagasic infection caused pancreatitis similar to human Chagas' disease, involving acini, islets and nerves, with atrophy and fibrosis, although without correlation to the number of reinfections. Erratic blood glucose levels and a tendency to hypoinsulinemia were observed in infected animals. During the acute phase, the number of somatostatin and pancreatic polipeptide producer islet cells was lower in infected hamsters, which was eventually related to changes in blood sugar levels and hypoinsulinemia. Our findings favor the hypothesis of the existence of an endocrine form of chronic chagasic infection.
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PMID:Functional and histopathological study of the pancreas in hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) infected and reinfected with Trypanosoma cruzi. 1532 22

In this paper, the distribution of NADH-positive and somatostatin (SOM) immunoreactive neurons in the myenteric plexus of the colon of mice infected with Trypanosoma cruzi was studied. Ten young, male, BALB/c mice were inoculated with the Y strain of T. cruzi, 60 days previously (chronic phase of the infection). Another 10 mice were uninfected controls. Distal and proximal colonic neurons from five chronically infected mice and their controls were stained using the NADH-diaphorase method. Quantitative results showed a significant decrease of 39% in the number of neurons in the proximal colon of infected mice and 58% in the distal colon (p<0.05). SOM was localized in five animals from each group by light microscopy, using an indirect immunofluorescence technique. It was observed that there were far fewer nerve cells and fibres and less intensely stained neuron bodies and varicose SOM-positive nerve fibres in both, control and chronic infected mice. These findings could be related to the disturbances in intestinal motility observed in patients in the chronic phase of Chagas' disease.
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PMID:Trypanosoma cruzi: preliminary investigation of NADH-positive and somatostatin-immunoreactive neurons in the myenteric plexus of the mouse colon during the infection. 1620 12

Chagasic megacolon is accompanied by extensive myenteric and, simultaneously, moderate submucosal neuron loss. Here, we examined changes of the innervation pattern of the lamina propria (LP) and muscularis mucosae (MM). Two alternating sets of cryosections were taken from seven non-chagasic colonic and seven chagasic megacolonic specimens (the latter included both the dilated megacolonic and the non-dilated transitional oral and anal zones) and were immunohistochemically triple-stained for smooth-muscle actin (SMA), synaptophysin (SYN) and glial acid protein S100 and, alternatively, for SMA, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and somatostatin (SOM). Subsequent image analysis and statistical evaluation of nervous tissue profile areas revealed that, in LP, the most extreme differences (i.e. increase in thickness or decrease in nerve, glia and muscle tissue profile area, respectively) compared with control values occurred in the dilated megacolonic zone itself. In contrast, the most extreme differences in the MM were in the anal-to-megacolonic zone (except the profile area of muscle tissue, which was lowest in the megacolonic zone). This parallels our previous results in the external muscle coat. A partial and selective survival of VIP-immunoreactive in contrast to SOM-immunoreactive nerve fibres was observed in both mucosal layers investigated. Thus, VIPergic nerve elements might be crucial for the maintenance of the mucosal barrier. The differential changes of neural tissue parameters in LP and MM might reflect a multifactorial rather than a pure neurogenic development of megacolon in chronic Chagas' disease.
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PMID:Mucosal layers and related nerve fibres in non-chagasic and chagasic human colon--a quantitative immunohistochemical study. 2496 47