Two million Americans suffer from pulmonary emphysema, costing $2.5 billion/year and contributing to 100,000 deaths/year. Emphysema is thought to result from an imbalance between elastase and endogenous inhibitors of elastase, leading to tissue destruction and a loss of alveoli. Decades of research have still not resulted in an effective treatment other than stopping cigarette smoking, a highly...

Human leukocyte cathespin G strongly stimulates the rate of solubilization of human lung elastin by human leukocyte elastase. For instance, the elastolytic activity of an equimolar mixture of elastase and cathepsin G is more than 5 times higher than that of elastase alone. Optimal stimulation occurs only if cathepsin G and elastase act simultaneously on elastin. Potentiation of leukocyte elasta...

BACKGROUND Inhaled antibiotics are commonly used in the treatment of cystic fibrosis lung disease. A previous study suggested neutrophil elastase activation by colistin in vitro. Here, we investigated direct effects of the commonly used antibiotics colistin and tobramycin on neutrophil elastase activity. METHODS Neutrophil elastase was measured spectrophotometrically. The antibiotics colistin...

The concentrations and application methods of elastase in the rabbit aneurysm model were optimized to control the initiation of aneurysms and to cause rupture in a stepwise, controlled fashion. The common carotid artery of male Japanese albino rabbits was exposed. No aneurysm was generated if the adventitia was not dissected. After gentle removal of the adventitia, a two-fold dilution series of...

We have studied the effects of the mucolytic thiol agent mercapto-ethanesulphonate (mesna) on the activity of both polymorphonuclear leucocyte (PMN) elastase and antileucoprotease in vitro. In all tests a specific synthetic substrate was used to measure elastase activity, which was then related to enzyme activity in the absence of mesna. The relative elastase activity decreased to 67.5% of cont...

Elastase is released from human neutrophils during the early events of blood coagulation. Human plasma kallikrein has been shown to stimulate neutrophil chemotaxis, aggregation, and oxygen consumption. Therefore, the ability of kallikrein to release neutrophil elastase was investigated. Neutrophils were isolated by dextran sedimentation, and elastase release was measured by both an enzyme-linke...

Angiotensin II (Ang II) stimulates vascular inflammation, oxidative stress, and formation and rupture of intracranial aneurysms in mice. Because Ang 1-7 acts on Mas receptors and generally counteracts deleterious effects of Ang II, we tested the hypothesis that Ang 1-7 attenuates formation and rupture of intracranial aneurysms. Intracranial aneurysms were induced in wild-type and Mas receptor-d...

This study was conducted to investigate the in vitro anti-inflammatory, anti-elastase, procollagen production, and astringent activities of <i>Euphorbia thymifolia</i> extracts prepared using two solvents for cosmetic application focusing on skin aging. Extraction performed by solvent extraction method with methanol (EM) hot-water (EW). Astringent activity EM increased concentration...