[Activity of DPP III in human cerebrospinal fluid derived from patients with pain].
BACKGROUND
In the course of elucidating physiological roles of spinorphin, an endogenous regulator of enkephalin-degrading enzyme, we found that dipeptidyl peptidase III (DPP III) was contained in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In this study, we examined the activity of DPP III in human CSF derived from patients with pain.


METHODS
We used human CSF as specimen collected during operations under spinal anesthesia. Patients were divided into three groups, patients without pain (normal group), with acute pain, and with chronic pain. We measured DPP III activities in each group, using specific substrates, such as Arg-Arg-AMC.


RESULTS
DPP III activity for human CSF in patients with acute pain was significantly lower compared with that in patients without pain (P < 0.05). Furthermore, DPP III activity correlated with APN activity, another spinorphin-degrading enzyme, in patients with pain (r = 0.444).


CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that DPP III may play a role in regulation of endogenous opioids, leading to pain modulation.
Sato
Hiroshi
H
Department of Anesthesia, Tokyo Metropolitan Komagome Hospital, Tokyo 113-8677.
Kimura
Kohei
K
Yamamoto
Yukio
Y
Hazato
Tadahiko
T
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004152:Dipeptidyl-Peptidases and Tripeptidyl-Peptidases / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000378:metabolism; D010146:Pain / Q000201:enzymology*; D012016:Reference Values
D009842:Oligopeptides; C082392:spinorphin; D004152:Dipeptidyl-Peptidases and Tripeptidyl-Peptidases; C100152:dipeptidyl peptidase III