Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:Q0Z944 (hemoglobin)
 63,986 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We investigated so-called superoxide scavenging activity (SSA) of plasma in patients with several immunological disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), polymyo-dermatomyositis (PM), progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS), myasthenia gravis (MG) and autoimmune thyroid disease (AT), using the electron paramagnetic resonance/spin trapping technique. Since carboxyethylgermanium sesquioxide, Ge-132, has been reported to modulate both the immune response and leukocyte functions, we have studied in vivo effect of Ge-132 on plasma SSA and other laboratory parameters in these disorders. The plasma SSA was significantly lower in RA, SLE, PM and PSS, but not in MG and AT, as compared with that in healthy controls. An inverse correlation was observed between plasma SSA and parameters such as erythrocytes sedimentation rates, absolute number of leukocytes, C-reactive protein and serum globulin levels. Furthermore, plasma SSA was significantly decreased in rheumatoid factor-positive patients as compared to negative patients. No correlation was observed between plasma SSA and factors such as ages, sex of patients or the other laboratory parameters, such as serum albumin, triglyceride, cholesterol, hemoglobin and serum iron levels. Patients treated with prednisolone, especially ones with RA, showed an increase of plasma SSA. It appears that Ge-132 promotes prednisolone effects. Our results indicate that a decrease in plasma SSA is not disease specific, but inversely correlates with the severity and activity of inflammation. The methodology to measure plasma SSA presented in this work provides a helpful tool for determining the actual activity of the diseases as well as in vivo studies of antiinflammatory agents.
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PMID:Decreased plasma superoxide scavenging activity in immunological disorders--carboxyethylgermanium sesquioxide (Ge-132) as a promoter of prednisolone. 131 42

The most suitable measures to assess the disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with slow-acting anti-rheumatic drugs were considered in a prospective study. This was organised across Europe in 12 specialised centres and 282 patients were studied. The patients were all considered to be in need of therapy with a slow-acting anti-rheumatic drug and were studied at the initiation of therapy, and after 3 and 6 months of treatment. There were 215 patients who remained on treatment for 6 months. The most useful measures to assess disease activity were: the number of swollen joints, the number of tender joints, pain, the patients' assessment of response, and ESR. These should form a minimum data set when assessing the activity of rheumatoid arthritis. Some measures such as grip strength, hemoglobin, and the C-reactive protein level showed too much variation between centres and will require considerable standardisation before they can be used across Europe. There were problems in collecting functional data and further work is needed to develop a functional questionnaire available in all European languages with culturally suitable questions.
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PMID:Disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis: preliminary report of the Consensus Study Group of the European Workshop for Rheumatology Research. 829 67

We conducted a double-blind, randomized trial comparing azathioprine (AZA) and methotrexate (MTX) in the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis in whom parenteral gold and/or D-penicillamine treatment had been unsuccessful. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either AZA (100 mg daily) or oral MTX (7.5 mg weekly). After 8 weeks, the dosage was increased depending on the clinical improvement. Sixty-four patients were followed up for 48 weeks (33 AZA, 31 MTX). Comparison of values at week 24 with baseline values revealed significant improvement in 12 of 13 disease variables in the MTX group and in 6 of 13 in the AZA group. Comparison between the 2 treatment groups at 24 weeks, by area-under-the-curve analysis, showed significantly more improvement in the MTX group in terms of the swollen joint count, pain score, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein level, hemoglobin level, thrombocyte level, and disease activity score. A significant overall clinical improvement (disease activity score) was found in 7 of 20 patients treated with AZA and 18 of 30 patients treated with MTX after 24 weeks of therapy, and in 6 of 12 AZA-treated patients and 19 of 25 MTX-treated patients after 48 weeks. The number of withdrawals due to side effects was significantly higher in the AZA group. After 48 weeks, only 12 patients from the AZA group (36%), but 25 from the MTX group (81%), were still using the initial drug. These results demonstrate MTX to be superior to AZA in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, with a more rapid clinical improvement which is sustained after 1 year, accompanied by a lower rate of serious adverse reactions.
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PMID:Methotrexate versus azathioprine in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. A forty-eight-week randomized, double-blind trial. 185 90

We have compared different measurements of small intestinal permeability in 28 patients with Crohn's disease affecting the small intestine, 14 with ulcerative colitis and 17 controls. Patients and controls were given a drink containing 100 microCi (3.7 MBq) of 51Cr-ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (51Cr-EDTA), 5 g lactulose, 5 g cellobiose, 1 g rhamnose, and 2 g mannitol. Urine was collected to 6 h after dosing, and then from 6 until 24 h. Recoveries of 51Cr-EDTA, lactulose, rhamnose, and mannitol were expressed as percentages of the amount administered. The only measurement that distinguished patients with Crohn's disease from both controls and patients with ulcerative colitis was the recovery of 51Cr-EDTA in the first 6 h after dosing. The mean recovery in patients with Crohn's disease was 1.07%; in controls, it was 0.35% (p = 0.013); in ulcerative colitis it was 0.39% (p = 0.032 compared to Crohn's; p = 0.492 compared to controls). No other measurement of permeability differentiated the three groups. Recoveries of 51Cr-EDTa and lactulose were highly correlated in each of the three groups. Recovery of rhamnose was significantly correlated with that of mannitol. In the patients with Crohn's disease, recovery of 51Cr-EDTA to 6 h was significantly correlated with some nonspecific laboratory indicators of inflammatory activity, namely, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, platelet count, white blood cell count, serum albumin, and C-reactive protein, but not with hemoglobin.
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PMID:Comparison of different measurements of intestinal permeability in inflammatory bowel disease. 192 36

Twenty-three patients were included in this prospective study about the safety and efficacy of oral low dose methotrexate (MTX) in the treatment of refractory rheumatoid arthritis. Patients received a mean dosage of 6.6 +/- 1.8 (SD) mg weekly over a mean duration of 16.6 +/- 12.5 months. Patients improved significantly in all clinical parameters of efficacy. There were significant reductions in Lansbury joint scores (p less than 0.001), duration of morning stiffness (p less than 0.001), sedimentation rates (p less than 0.001), C-reactive protein (p less than 0.01), IgG(p less than 0.01), rheumatoid factor (p less than 0.01) and significant increase in grip strength (p less than 0.001), hemoglobin (p less than 0.05) after 17 months of treatment with MTX. Radiographic progression of joint disease were assessed using global scoring method. The mean rate of development of erosions and joint-space narrowing during MTX therapy was significantly less than the rate of radiographic progression before MTX therapy (8.1 +/- 7. 9/year vs. 1.9 +/- 3.8; p less than 0.05). Adverse reactions during MTX therapy included transient transaminase elevation (17.4%). Five patients (21.7%) were withdrawn because of leukopenia (2), interstitial pneumonitis (1), stomatitis (1), skin rash (1). We conclude that low-dose methotrexate is effective for the management of clinical disease activity in patients with refractory rheumatoid arthritis and may be a disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMAR-Ds) by roentgenographic criteria.
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PMID:[Low dose methotrexate therapy in rheumatoid arthritis]. 224 52

The clinical background relating to edema in elderly inpatients was investigated, in terms of various items in elderly (aged greater than or equal to 65) cases with edema (n = 96) and without edema (controls, n = 95). Both groups were matched for sex, age, and underlying diseases. As compared with the control patients, the patients with edema had longer hospital stays with more disabled status, and showed less activity of daily living (ADL). The rates of bed-restricted patients, dementia patients, and patients with decubitus, muscle atrophy, or incontinence were found to be significantly higher in the patients with edema. The measurement of biochemical parameters revealed that the patients with edema had significantly lower levels of serum albumin, Na, Cl, creatinine, and uric acid, in contrast to higher levels of C-reactive protein. According to the classification of the assumed causes of edema, we divided the patients with edema into five groups; group 1 (n = 33): edema associated with immobilization, group 2 (n = 18): edema due to heart failure, group 3 (n = 15): edema on paretic limbs, group 4 (n = 6): edema due to hypoproteinemia, group 5 (n = 5): edema associated with liver cirrhosis. Both group 1 and group 4 patients had lower levels of hemoglobin and albumin, whereas group 3 patients had higher scores of ADL, higher blood pressure, and higher levels of hemoglobin and albumin. These results suggest that immobilization and restriction in bed, as well as malnutrition, were important factors in causing edema in elderly inpatients.
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PMID:[A controlled study on edema in elderly inpatients]. 238 89

The serum and urinary ferritin levels in 52 RA patients were measured by the 2-site immunoradiometric assay method. Serum ferritin levels in RA patients correlated with C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) but not with serum iron levels and hemoglobin concentrations, although they were within the normal range. High serum ferritin levels were associated with sera with hyper gamma-globulin and rheumatoid factors. In sequential studies, serum ferritin changed in parallel with ESR, CRP and disease activity in a majority of the patients. The urinary ferritin levels and u/s ratios in some RA patients were higher than control values. Higher values were found particularly in the group of patients under gold therapy but not in groups under other treatments.
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PMID:Serum and urinary ferritin levels in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. 241 23

Several proteins have been quantitated in cytosols prepared from benign and malignant tumors of the breast; orosomucoid, albumin, transferrin, complement 4, C-reactive protein alpha 2-macroglobulin and hemoglobin. With the exception of hemoglobin, concentrations of the proteins measured were significantly intercorrelated. Their relative abundance was close to that reported in blood, except for alpha 2-macroglobulin and hemoglobin which were present in lower amounts. From hemoglobin measurements it can be concluded that blood contamination contributed less than 10% to the cytosol proteins measured. When compared to albumin, none of the proteins investigated occurred in concentrations sufficient to indicate local synthesis of a magnitude that would significantly influence tumor environment. From the present data it can be concluded that extracellular proteins constitute about 50% of total cytosol protein. This indicates an exceptional capillary leakage in breast tumors possibly related to abnormal hormonal influences. There were, however, large individual variations and about 10% of the cytosols could be predicted to contain negligible amounts of cell-derived protein. There was a highly significant difference between benign and malignant tumors in their cytosol content of extracellular protein, benign tumors containing nearly twice as much albumin. It is suggested that measurement of an extracellular protein (albumin) should be included in tumor characterization to correct for cellularity and representativity of tumor samples used for steroid receptor determinations and for measurements of other parameters using "cytosol" protein to express specific activity.
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PMID:Extracellular proteins in breast tumor cytosol. 243 64

Macrophages activated at sites of tissue injury produce interleukin-1, which induces hepatocytes to synthesize acute phase proteins (APP). Daily serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), haptoglobin (HPT), transferrin (TRF), alpha-1 antitrypsin, and ceruloplasmin (CER) were measured in 60 patients, 30 having inguinal herniorrhaphy (H), 18 cholecystectomy (C), and 12 major abdominal trauma (MAT). APP response was proportional to the level of tissue injury. CRP rose in all groups, MAT greater than C, which was greater than H. HPT levels were depressed in MAT, presumably due to removal of hemoglobin-HPT complexes from the serum. TRF was severely depressed in MAT and may be implicated in the higher infection susceptibility in this group. CER was elevated in C, suggesting a stimulating mechanism in this group as opposed to H and MAT. Explanation for this is unknown. APP changes, especially CRP, may be useful as markers of the amount of tissue damage.
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PMID:Acute phase protein response to tissue injury. 243 55

There is a very important modification of the plasma protein equilibrium during an inflammatory reaction. Most of the proteins, except the immunoglobulins, have their biosynthesis or catabolic rate modified. The plasma concentration of these proteins may be increased, decreased or equal to the normal values. Clinically, the term "Acute Phase Protein" APP is reserved for the proteins whose plasma concentration is at least 50 per cent higher than normal values. These APP are: alpha-1 acid-glycoprotein, alpha-1 proteinase inhibitor, alpha-1 antichymotrypsin, haptoglobin, ceruloplasmin, fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, serum amyloid A protein. Interleukin-1 induces the APP's hepatic biosynthesis. The APP and, more generally, a lot of plasma proteins play a role during inflammatory reaction. They have some real functions of metabolic regulators. The functions result from the interaction of these proteins with ligands of various origins which give "protein-ligands" complexes. These complexes are cleared by the RES or by the hepatocyte. The results are protease inhibition, neutralization of toxic molecules such as hemoglobin or the superoxide anion, clearance of cell membranes and chromatin. The interaction of plasma proteins and particularly the APP's with different ligands issued from the inflammatory site, is an example of physiopathological self regulation.
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PMID:[Proteins of the inflammatory reaction. Regulatory functions]. 245 87


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