Acrodynia and hypertension in a young girl secondary to elemental mercury toxicity acquired in the home.

Acrodynia, also known as pink disease, erythredema polyneuropathy, Feer syndrome, and raw-beef hands and feet, is thought to be a toxic reaction to elemental mercury and less commonly to organic and inorganic forms. Occurring commonly in the early 20th century, acrodynia is now a seemingly extinct disease in the modern world because of regulations to eliminate mercury from personal care products, household items, medications, and vaccinations. We present a case of a 3-year-old girl with acrodynia secondary to toxic exposure to elemental mercury in the home environment.

Dynamic O-GlcNAc modification of nucleocytoplasmic proteins in response to stress. A survival response of mammalian cells.

Cellular response to environmental, physiological, or chemical stress is key to survival following injury or disease. Here we describe a unique signaling mechanism by which cells detect and respond to stress in order to survive. A wide variety of stress stimuli rapidly increase nucleocytoplasmic protein modification by O-linked beta-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc), an essential post-translational modification of Ser and Thr residues of metazoans. Blocking this post-translational modification, or reducing it, renders cells more sensitive to stress and results in decreased cell survival; and increasing O-GlcNAc levels protects cells. O-GlcNAc regulates both the rates and extent of the stress-induced induction of heat shock proteins, providing a molecular basis for these findings.