. . . . . . . "[These studies demonstrated that: (a) alpha 1-antitrypsin is the major antielastase of the normal human lower respiratory tract; (b) alpha 2-macroglobulin, a large serum antielastase, and the bronchial mucous inhibitor, an antielastase of the central airways, do not contribute to the antielastase protection of the human alveolar structures; (c) individuals with PiZ alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency have little or no alpha 1-antitrypsin in their lower respiratory tract and have no alternative antiprotease protection against neutrophil elastase; and (d) the lack of antiprotease protection of the lower respiratory tract of PiZ individuals is a chronic process, suggesting their vulnerability to neutrophil elastase is always present.]. Sentence from MEDLINE/PubMed, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine."@en . . . . . "2017-02-19"^^ . . "Gene-disease associations inferred from text-mining the literature."@en . "DisGeNET evidence - LITERATURE"@en . "2017-10-17T13:10:11+02:00"^^ . . . . . . . . . . . "v5.0.0.0" . "v5.0.0" .