Amyloids are insoluble fibrous protein aggregates sharing specific structural traits. Abnormal accumulation of amyloid in organs may lead to amyloidosis, and may play a role in various diseases. The name amyloid comes from the early mistaken identification of the substance as starch (amylum in Latin), based on crude iodine-staining techniques. For a period, it was debated whether or not amyloid...

A 69-year-old man had dyspnea followed by slowly progressive proximal leg weakness over 2 years. He had macroglossia (figure 1). Creatine kinase was 1,378 U/L. A deltoid biopsy revealed myopathy, denervation atrophy, and congophilic deposits around perimysial vessels, indicating amyloid (figure 2). Further workup revealed serum monoclonal lambda protein, bone marrow amyloid, and cardiomyopathy....

Disease-associated amyloid deposits contain both fibrillar and nonfibrillar components. The majority of these amyloid components originate or coexist in the bloodstream. To understand the nature of the interaction between the nonfibrillar and fibrillar components, we have developed a centrifugation method to isolate fibril binding proteins from human serum. Amyloid fibrils composed of either Ab...

Introduction:
 Intestinal amyloidosis frequently encountered as a part of systemic amyloidosis, but rarely can be confined in the gastrointestinal tract.
 Case report:
 A 54-year-old male presented with complaint gas and stool discharge. Urgently segmental bowel resection was performed for ileus. Macroscopically nodular lesions, largest at 7x3x0.7 cm size were observed intestinal...

During inflammation, serum amyloid A proteins transport retinol to infected tissues.

Female protein (FP) is a pentraxin of Syrian hamster which is a homologue of two human pentraxins, C-reaction protein (CRP) and amyloid P component (AP). Functionally, FP has been shown to be similar to CRP, although FP has more homology at the amino terminus with AP. The present work investigated amyloid in the Syrian hamster to determine whether FP was involved in a manner analogous to AP. FP...

AIMS/BACKGROUND Primary localised amyloidosis is rarely encountered in the orbit. The typical clinical and radiological appearances have not been clearly established, in particular the single site deposition of amyloid has never been proved. METHODS Six cases were reviewed in detail and their clinical and radiological characteristics are described here. Four patients had scintigraphy with 123...

Systemic reactive AA amyloidosis is a life-threatening complication of chronic inflammatory diseases. Anti-interleukin-6 receptor, tocilizumab (TCZ), has been shown to improve clinical symptoms of patients with AA amyloidosis, accompanied with regression of the amyloid deposition. We report a case of AA amyloidosis evaluated by histology of multiple organs before and after TCZ treatment. A woma...