hydroxylysine and Aortic-Aneurysm

A recent report claimed that an amine in human skin (believed to be pyridinoline) was deficient in specimens from patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). Further studies suggest that this work was erroneous in two respects. First, the amine has been isolated and partially characterized; the major component of the peak of interest is a deoxyanalogue of pyridinoline. It may be a collagen cross-link of some biologic importance, because it is not detectable in skin from a patient with Marfan's syndrome. Second, further studies in an additional 19 patients with AAA and an additional 13 controls suggest that this amine is abnormally abundant in skin from patients with AAA. This difference cannot be accounted for by any potential source of artifact that has been traceable. The effects of age, diabetes, sex, race, site of biopsy, and source of specimen (autopsy versus surgery) have been studied; none of these variables can account for the high ratio of pyridinolines to hydroxylysine found in skin from patients with AAA.

Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Amino Acids; Aorta, Abdominal; Aortic Aneurysm; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Diabetes Mellitus; Female; Humans; Hydroxylysine; Male; Middle Aged; Skin

A spontaneously aneurysm-prone mouse has a mutation on the X chromosome, which results in an abnormality of copper metabolism. A deficiency of the copper metalloenzyme, lysyl oxidase, results in a deficiency of lysyl-derived cross-linkages in collagen and elastin. Homology of the X chromosome suggests that this model may be relevant to the human abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). The present studies on skin from eight AAA patients suggest that copper deficiency occurs in humans, by comparison to skin of paired control subjects with atherosclerotic occlusive disease of the aorta. The lysyl-derived cross-linkage pyridinoline (or some compound with similar ion exchange elution characteristics) is also deficient in patients with AAA; while there is an excess of one of the cross-linkage precursors, hydroxylysine. In addition, the fluorescent properties of hydrolysates of skin from the patients with AAA differ from those of the controls, suggesting that simple biochemical markers might be defined on the basis of these differences in the future. These experiments support the hypothesis that the mouse model is relevant to the disease as it occurs in humans.

Topics: Amino Acids; Animals; Aorta, Abdominal; Aortic Aneurysm; Biopsy; Copper; Fluorometry; Genetic Linkage; Humans; Hydroxylysine; In Vitro Techniques; Mice; Prospective Studies; Skin; Spectrometry, Fluorescence; Time Factors