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Biomedical subjects

J Friedland

Publications and source records attributed to J Friedland.

70 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Serum angiotensin converting enzyme in sarcoidosis: clinical significance.

The elevated activity of serum angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) in sarcoidosis was usually reduced during steroid therapy but remained above the normal value (52 nmol-min-1-ml-1) in approximately a third of patients during the first year of therapy. ACE was elevated in 5 of 10 patients treated with steroids for at least four years. It was significantly higher in untreated patients (placebo group), who were subsequently placed on steroid therapy because of clinical deterioration, than in those remaining on placebo therapy. In general ACE tended to diminish with increasing duration of disease. The results suggest that serial study of ACE may be useful in the clinical management of sarcoidosis, including assessment of the degree of activity, the need for steroid therapy, therapeutic result and the prognosis.

Adult↗

Increased serum angiotensin converting enzyme activity in sarcoidosis.

The activity of serum angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), assayed fluorometrically with the substrate hippuryl-L-histidyl-L-leucine was significantly higher in 116 patients with sarcoidosis than in 415 patients with other diseases--pulmonary and nonpulmonary--and in 58 normal subjects. Serum ACE was elevated in 59% of 46 recently diagnosed, untreated patients with sarcoidosis and was significantly reduced following steroid therapy in three patients with sarcoidosis, but in only one of four patients treated with placebos. The results suggest that elevated serum ACE activity is a valuable, although not absolutely specific, diagnostic indicator of sarcoidosis. It should be stressed that a normal value does not rule out the disease, and that steroid therapy tends to reduce the serum ACE activity.

Adult↗

Markedly elevated angiotensin converting enzyme in lymph nodes containing non-necrotizing granulomas in sarcoidosis.

Sarcoidosis is a disease of unknown etiology that is characterized by the generalized formation of granulomas and is accompanied by elevation in the serum in less than half the patients of angiotensin converting enzyme, a dipeptidyl carboxypeptidase that catalyzes the conversion of the decapeptide, angiotensin I, to the pressor octapeptide, angiotensin II, and L-histidyl-L-leucine. Mean activity of angiotensin converting enzyme was elevated generally more than 10-fold in granuloma-containing lymph nodes, but not in lung in which normally it is abundant, in 19 of 20 patients with sarcoidosis. Angiotensin converting enzyme in lymph nodes from subjects with sarcoidosis was similar to the enzyme from normal lung and lymph node with respect to activity as a function of pH, inhibition of activity by EDTA and o-phenanthroline, gel filtration on Sephadex G-200, and requirement for chloride for activity, but appeared to be more heat labile. The data suggest that the granulomas in sarcoidosis may be the source of the elevated serum enzyme and that cells of the granulomas, particularly the epitheloid cells which appear by electron microscopy to have active protein biosynthesis, may be actively synthesizing the enzyme.

Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors↗

A sensitive fluorimetric assay for serum angiotensin-converting enzyme.

A simple, rapid, highly sensitive and reproducible assay for angiotensin-converting enzyme in untreated serum is described. It is based on the conversion of the substrate analog, hippuryl-L-histidyl-L-leucine (5 mM in 0.1 M K phosphate, pH 8.3-0.3 M NaCl) to hippurate and L-histidyl-L-leucine, which is quantified spectrofluorimetrically (lamdba excitation = 360 nm; lamdba fluorescence = 500 nm) by formation of a fluorescent adduct with ophthaldialdehyde. The chloride requirement and inhibition and activation patterns correspond to those for angiotensin-converting enzyme. The Km for hippuryl-L-histidyl-L-leucine was 1.33 mM. The mean value of serum angiotensin-converting enzyme for 58 normal human subjects (mean age, 32 years; range 19-57) was 32.2 +/- 1.30 (SE), with a standard deviation of 9.87 nmol/min/ml serum. The assay is useful for the diagnosis and possible management of sarcoidosis and may have other applications in the future.

Humans↗

Elevation of angiotensin-converting enzyme in granulomatous lymph nodes and serum in sarcoidosis: clinical and possible pathogenic significance.

A statistically highly significant elevation of serum ACE was found in a group of 58 patients with sarcoidosis (serum ACE was elevated in 34% of patients), as compared with normal controls and patients with tuberculosis and various other common diseases. The results suggest that serum ACE is a useful aid for the diagnosis of sarcoidosis when elevated, but that a normal value does not rule out the condition and may occur in more than one-half of monitored patients. There is a trend to diminution of serum ACE with increasing duration of disease with or without steroid therapy, perhaps correlating with the total body mass of active granulomas, as indirectly suggested in preliminary data by correlation of serum ACE with serum globulin in 16 sarcoidosis patients. It is not yet clear whether there is any significant steroid effect on serum ACE, but a significant number of patients on steroid therapy for more than 2-4 yr have elevated serum ACE values, which in some instances are extremely high. There was a 12-fold elevation in ACE to specific activities generally exceeding those of normal lung in granulomatous lymph nodes of 14 patients with sarcoidosis, suggesting that sarcoid granulomas may be actively synthesizing ACE and resulting in elevation of serum ACE. Extensively fibrotic sarcoid lymph nodes had normal or slightly elevated ACE, suggesting that obliteration of granulomas in sarcoid lymph nodes diminishes their ACE content and that this obliteration may be related to the tendency to diminution of serum ACE with time. ACE was not elevated in one tuberculous lymph node or in experimental granulomas, suggesting that elevation of ACE may have some specificity for the granuloma of sarcoidosis rather than being a characteristic of all granulomas. The catalytic and physical properties of ACE in serum and lymph nodes in sarcoidosis were generally similar to normal ACE with respect to pH activity, modulators, polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis, and Sephadex G-200 gel filtration. However, sarcoid lymph node ACE appeared to be more heat labile than normal lung or lymph node ACE, suggesting the possibility that an abnormal ACE may be present in sarcoidosis. If an abnormal enzyme is indeed present, it might be coded for by a host gene that is not normally expressed or a nonhost gene or it might be a normal ACE that has been altered. No ACE activity was found in circulating white blood cells in sarcoidosis or in control subjects, suggesting that circulating white blood cells may not contain the epithelioid cell precursor or that ACE synthesis (or less likely, uptake) may be turned on at a later stage in the transformation. Lysozyme activity was also elevated in sarcoid lymph nodes. Serum ACE and serum lysozyme were significantly positively correlated in 16 sarcoidosis patients, suggesting a relationship between the two...

Granuloma↗

Calorimetric analysis of aspartate transcarbamylase from Escherichia coli: binding of cytosine 5'-triphosphate and adenosine 5'-triphosphate.

The binding of CTP and ATP to aspartate transcarbamylase at pH 7.8 and 8.5 at 25 degrees has been investigated by equilibrium dialysis and flow microcalorimetry. The binding isotherms for CTP at both pH 7.8 and 8.5 and ATP AT PH 8.5 can be fit by a model which assumes three tight, three moderately tight, and six weak binding sites. The binding isotherms for ATP at pH 7.8 are best fit by a model which assumes six tight and six weaker sites. Both finite differenceH binding and finite differenceS binding are negative for both nucleotides at both pH values, so that the binding is enthalpy driven. For both nucleotides, finite differenceH is the same for the first two classes of binding sites, implying that the difference in the dissociation constants of these two classes of sites is the result of entropic effects. Direct pH measurements and calorimetric measurements in two buffers with very different heats of ionization (Tris and Hepes) indicate that the binding of both nucleotides is accompanied by the binding of protons. In the pH range 6.7-8.4, the number of moles of protons bound per mole of nucleotide increases as the pH decreases.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗