Content of human pancreatic elastoproteinase and elastomucases in relation to age and degree of atherosclerosis

Elastolytic Enzymes and Elastin in the Aging Rat

“…Although there is severe doubt that the data reported by Hall [11] for the concentration of elastoproteinase in human plasma in relation to age reflect real enzyme activity, his data surprisingly enough show some similarity with data about age effects on the enzyme level in human pancreatic extracts [16,17] and in rat pancreatic extracts as shown in figures 4 and 5. Table I shows a survey of what kind of changes take place in the various age periods, keeping in mind that in human beings a close relationship exists between enzyme levels and pathological conditions.…”

“…Treatment of the pancreatic extracts with trypsin did not result in increased enzyme activity. Also the residue of the pancreas after extraction was devoid of any proenzyme or active enzyme as was also the case with human pancreas as shown in previous papers [16,17]. Vander M eers and C hristophe [25] demonstrated that over 90% of proelastase can be extracted from rat pancreas in tris buffer of pH 8.5.…”

“…The essential role of elastolytic enzymes in the process of aging and pathological situations of elastic tissue is supported by (a) recent findings that pancreatic enzymes when discharged into the pancreatic secretion fluid can be reabsorpted from the gastrointestinal tract [22,27]; (b) the fact that oral administration of 'elastase' produced marked systemic activity [2,10,15,16]; (c) the reports of the presence of elastolytic enzymes in blood (plasma or serum, platelets, leukocytes) and in the vessel wall, although up till now these findings have never been confirmed by other investigators [20]. Although there is severe doubt that the data reported by Hall [11] for the concentration of elastoproteinase in human plasma in relation to age reflect real enzyme activity, his data surprisingly enough show some similarity with data about age effects on the enzyme level in human pancreatic extracts [16,17] and in rat pancreatic extracts as shown in figures 4 and 5.…”

“…Table I shows a survey of what kind of changes take place in the various age periods, keeping in mind that in human beings a close relationship exists between enzyme levels and pathological conditions. It was suggested that the hyper production in women around the menopausal period was affected by changes in hormonal regulation of the pancreas [16,17]. In how far the same sug gestion holds for female rats is completely unknown.…”

“…With improved methods, the author investigated the relationship between age of human beings and the concentrations of pancreatic elastoproteinase and elastomucases, but concluded that it was questionable whether the values varied with the normal aging processes. In each group, however, there was a high correlation between increased levels of elastolytic enzymes and those stages of arteriosclerosis and lung emphysema in which metabolic changes in connective tissue components take place [16,17]. In an attempt to get more information on the correlation between activities of elastolytic enzymes and their inhibitors, the site of their elaboration and damage to elastin-containing tissue as a function of age, an intensive study was recently started using Wistar virgin rats of the Gerontology Research Center.…”