Circulating 20S proteasome levels in patients with mixed connective tissue disease and systemic lupus erythematosus.

The associations of circulating 20S proteasomes (c20S) with clinical and serologic disease indices in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) are unknown. We present the initial report that c20S levels are elevated in MCTD and correlate with clinically relevant changes in disease activity in SLE and MCTD.

Immunological methods to quantify and characterize proteasome complexes: development and application.

The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway plays major roles in all aspects of biology and contributes to various disease processes. Due to the lack of assays that permit proteasome quantification in crude cell extracts, its concentrations in health and disease states as well as the relationship between free 20S core particles (20S) and 26S proteasomes (26S) that consist of 20S singly or doubly capped with 19S regulator complexes (19S) are still largely unknown. Thus, we established a 20S ELISA for the detection of total 20S, and developed a specific 26S ELISA.

Systemic ubiquitin release after blunt trauma and burns: association with injury severity, posttraumatic complications, and survival.

Background: Recent data suggest that ubiquitin (Ub) is systemically released after trauma, has pleiotropic effects on host defense mechanisms, and that Ub administration reduces fluid shifts into tissues during inflammation. Ub release after burns (B) has not been studied and its association with injury severity and outcome after blunt trauma (T) is unknown. Thus, we evaluated Ubs association with injury severity and outcomes after B and T.

Ubiquitin enhances the Th2 cytokine response and attenuates ischemia-reperfusion injury in the lung.

Objective: To determine whether ubiquitin treatment modulates the lung cytokine response and attenuates lung ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Design And Setting: Randomized and blinded treatment of unilateral lung ischemia-reperfusion injury in a research laboratory.

Subjects: Twenty anesthetized and mechanically ventilated Brown Norway rats.

Cardiac proteasome dysfunction during cold ischemic storage and reperfusion in a murine heart transplantation model.

Recent observations suggest that the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) contributes to the pathophysiology of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. Since its regulation during cold ischemia-reperfusion is unknown, we evaluated the cardiac UPS in a model of heart transplantation in mice. Cardiac ubiquitylation rates and ubiquitin-protein conjugates increased after 3h of cold ischemia (CI) and normalized post-transplant.