ABSTRACT. Objective. Recent reports warn that the worldwide cell culture capacity is insufficient to fulfill the increasing demand for human protein drugs. Production in milk of transgenic animals is an attractive alternative. Kilogram quantities of product per year can be obtained at relatively low costs, even in small animals such as rabbits. We tested the long-term safety and efficacy of recombinant human ␣-glucosidase (rhAGLU) from rabbit milk for the treatment of the lysosomal storage disorder Pompe disease. The disease occurs with an estimated frequency of 1 in 40 000 and is designated as orphan disease. The classic infantile form leads to death at a median age of 6 to 8 months and is diagnosed by absence of ␣-glucosidase activity and presence of fully deleterious mutations in the ␣-glucosidase gene. Cardiac hypertrophy is characteristically present. Loss of muscle strength prevents infants from achieving developmental milestones such as sitting, standing, and walking. Milder forms of the disease are associated with less severe mutations and partial deficiency of ␣-glucosidase.Methods. In the beginning of 1999, 4 critically ill patients with infantile Pompe disease (2.5-8 months of age) were enrolled in a single-center open-label study and treated intravenously with rhAGLU in a dose of 15 to 40 mg/kg/week.Results. Genotypes of patients were consistent with the most severe form of Pompe disease. Additional molecular analysis failed to detect processed forms of ␣-glucosidase (95, 76, and 70 kDa) in 3 of the 4 patients and revealed only a trace amount of the 95-kDa biosynthetic intermediate form in the fourth (patient 1). With the more sensitive detection method, 35 S-methionine incorporation, we could detect low-level synthesis of ␣-glucosidase in 3 of the 4 patients (patients 1, 2, and 4) with some posttranslation modification from 110 kDa to 95 kDa in 1 of them (patient 1). One patient (patient 3) remained totally deficient with both detection methods (negative for cross-reactive immunologic material [CRIM negative]). The ␣-glucosidase activity in skeletal muscle and fibroblasts of all 4 patients was below the lower limit of detection (<2% of normal). The rhAGLU was tolerated well by the patients during >3 years of treatment. AntirhAGLU immunoglobulin G titers initially increased during the first 20 to 48 weeks of therapy but declined thereafter. There was no consistent difference in antibody formation comparing CRIM-negative with CRIMpositive patients. Muscle ␣-glucosidase activity increased from <2% to 10% to 20% of normal in all patients during the first 12 weeks of treatment with 15 to 20 mg/kg/week. For optimizing the effect, the dose was increased to 40 mg/kg/week. This resulted, 12 weeks later, in normal ␣-glucosidase activity levels, which were maintained until the last measurement in week 72. Importantly, all 4 patients, including the patient without any endogenous ␣-glucosidase (CRIM negative), revealed mature 76-and 70-kDa forms of ␣-glucosidase on Western blot. Conversion of the 110-kDa precurs...

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Chronic increased pulmonary blood flow is considered a pre-requisite for the induction of advanced vascular lesions in pulmonary arterial hypertension in congenital heart defects. The aim of the present study was to characterise the effects of increased pulmonary flow induced by an aortocaval shunt in the monocrotaline rat model for pulmonary hypertension in terms of survival, haemodynamics, pathology and histology.Male Wistar rats were injected with monocrotaline followed by the creation of an abdominal aortocaval shunt. Animals were sacrificed when displaying symptoms of weight loss or dyspnoea, 4-5 weeks after the creation of the shunt.Echocardiography identified increased ventricular dimensions in shunted rats and right ventricular hypertrophy in monocrotaline-treated rats. At similar pulmonary artery pressures, shunted monocrotaline rats displayed higher morbidity and mortality, increased pulmonary-tosystemic artery pressure ratios and increased right ventricular hypertrophy compared with nonshunted monocrotaline rats. Histological assessment demonstrated increased number and diameter of pre-acinar pulmonary arteries. Intra-acinar vessel remodelling and occlusion occurred to a similar extent in shunted and nonshunted monocrotaline rats.In conclusion, increased pulmonary blood flow in monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and unfavourable haemodynamic and cardiac effects. These effects could be attributed to more pronounced right heart failure rather than to altered intra-acinar pulmonary vessel remodelling. KEYWORDS: Animal model, congenital heart disease, plexogenic arteriopathy, pulmonary arterial hypertension, pulmonary vascular histopathology, right heart failure P atients with congenital heart disease associated with systemic-to-pulmonary shunts, increasing both pulmonary blood flow and pressure, develop characteristic pulmonary vascular lesions as concentric-laminar intimal fibrosis and plexiform lesions. These vascular lesions are characterised by vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cell proliferation. In contrast, in patients with congenital heart defects and isolated increased pulmonary artery pressure (PAP), these lesions almost never develop [1,2]. The current authors hypothesise that, in congenital heart defects, increased pulmonary blood flow, in addition to increased pressure, is a pre-requisite for the development of the hallmark lesions of advanced pulmonary arterial hypertension.Animal models with an isolated increase in PAP, e.g. induced by the toxic alkaloid monocrotaline, show pulmonary vascular remodelling, but fail to display the more advanced lesions as described previously [3-5].The role of increased pulmonary blood flow has been explored in animal models [6]. In rat models with isolated increased flow [7,8], a moderate increase in pulmonary pressure and medial hypertrophy has been observed, but only after a prolonged period of exposure.When the additional effect of flow was explored in existing rat models for pul...