We characterized the elastase and antielastase activity of the alveolar fluid of seven patients with the adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and thirteen normal volunteers. Alpha-1-antitrypsin (A1AT) concentrations were 60-fold higher in ARDS as compared to normal lavage fluid (2,140 +/- 498 nM; 36.1 +/- 4.2 nM, respectively). ARDS fluid antineutrophil elastase activity was also consider...

Lung carcinogenesis is a complex process that occurs in unregulated inflammatory environment. EGCG has been extensively investigated as a multi-targeting anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory compound. In this study, we demonstrated a novel mechanism by which EGCG reverses the neutrophil elastase-induced migration of A549 cells. We found that neutrophil elastase directly triggered human adenocarcino...

Elastase is a protease or proteolytic enzyme, responsible for the breakdown of protein. There are eight human genes encoding for elastase, of which Elastase-1 (CELA-1) and Elastase-2 (ELANE) has significant implications on human diseases. Elastase-1 is primarily expressed in skin keratinocytes and is regarded as the major cause for the blistering in bullous pemphigoid, which affects the skin. O...

Leucocyte elastase may be involved in the structural modification observed in the atherosclerotic process. Therefore, we tested the usefulness of leucocyte elastase plasma level determination as a marker for atherosclerosis. Plasma levels of elastase were determined by ELISA in 100 consecutive patients (mean age 56 +/- 9.8 years) admitted to hospital for coronary angiographic investigation of c...

The specificity of macrophage elastase obtained from mouse peritoneal exudative macrophages was determined in the hydrolysis of the oxidized insulin B-chain. This elastase hydrolysed two bonds, namely Ala-Leu and Tyr-Leu. The rate of hydrolysis of the latter was two to three times greater than that of the former. The hexapeptide Glu-Ala-Leu-Tyr-Leu-Val, obtained by cleavage of the insulin B-cha...

Cysteine cathepsins have emerged as new players in inflammatory lung disorders. Their activities are dramatically increased in the sputum of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, suggesting that they are involved in the pathophysiology of CF. We have characterized the cathepsins in CF expectorations and evaluated their use as markers of colonization by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The concentrations of act...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Reproducible animal models facilitate preclinical assessment of aneurysm therapies. Our purpose was to determine if increased elastase doses enlarge aneurysms and parent arteries. METHODS Rabbit right common carotid artery (CCA) aneurysms were created with distal ligation and intraluminal elastase incubation. Groups were 1) sham (no elastase, n = 3), 2) 25% elastase (10...

The role of the proteolytic enzyme elastase in motility and proliferation of leukemic human acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) cells is currently unknown. We report a correlation between abnormally high levels of elastase in the blood of AML patients and the number of leukemic blast cells in the circulation. In AML cells, we observed expression of cell-surface elastase, which was regulated by th...

The systemic inflammatory response syndrome is responsible for pancreatitis-associated mortality. Recent in vitro and in vivo studies have suggested that pancreatic elastase is one missing link between the localized inflammatory process in the pancreas and distant organ dysfunction and failure. It has been shown that pancreatic elastase activates transcription factors, including NF-kappaB, and ...