Downlo essive bone destruction is a major cause of morbidity in myeloma patients. However, the biological nisms involved in the pathogenesis of myeloma-induced bone disease are not fully understood. Heparan enzyme that cleaves the heparan sulfate chains of proteoglycans, is upregulated in a variety of huumors, including multiple myeloma. We previously showed that heparanase promotes robust myel...

Tumor-stimulated bone resorption fuels tumor growth and marks a dramatic decline in the health and prognosis of breast cancer patients. Identifying mechanisms that mediate cross-talk between tumor and bone remains a key challenge. We previously demonstrated that breast cancer cells expressing high levels of heparanase exhibit enhanced shedding of the syndecan-1 proteoglycan. Moreover, when thes...

BACKGROUND Heparanase, an endoglycosidase that cleaves heparan sulfate (HS), is involved in various biologic processes. Recently, an association between heparanase and glomerular injury was suggested. The present study examines the involvement of heparanase in the pathogenesis of Adriamycin-induced nephrotic syndrome (ADR-NS) in a mouse model. METHODS BALB/c wild-type (wt) mice and heparanase...

To reach the lymphatics, migrating dendritic cells (DCs) need to interact with the extracellular matrix (ECM). Heparanase, a mammalian endo-β-D-glucuronidase, specifically degrades heparan sulfate proteoglycans ubiquitously associated with the cell surface and ECM. The role of heparanase in the physiology of bone marrow-derived DCs was studied in mutant heparanase knock-out (Hpse-KO) mice. Imma...

Breast cancer confined within the lactiferous duct or lobule, without invading the stroma, is called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), whereas breast cancer that has invaded the stroma through the basal membrane is called invasive cancer. Heparanase, an endo-ß-D-glucuronidase that specifically degrades heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) in the extracellular matrix (ECM), plays an important ro...

Ultimately, the cause of death for many cancer patients is the presence of metastases, the spread of the cancer from primary to distant sites. One of the critical steps in metastasis is the ability of tumor cells to degrade basement membrane structures that underlie the epithelial and endothelial cell layers, and much research has focused on the identification of genes that contribute to this p...

Heparan sulfate plays an essential role for insolubility of the components of extracellular matrix and represents a storage depot for various growth factors. Therefore, heparanase produced by a given tumor may facilitate tumor invasiveness and angiogenesis through the release of heparan sulfate-bound growth factors. Although the growth factors responsible for angiogenesis in hepatocellular carc...

PURPOSE Heparanase promotes myeloma growth, dissemination, and angiogenesis through modulation of the tumor microenvironment, thus highlighting the potential of therapeutically targeting this enzyme. SST0001, a nonanticoagulant heparin with antiheparanase activity, was examined for its inhibition of myeloma tumor growth in vivo and for its mechanism of action. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN The ability ...

Objective To discuss the relevance of heparanase and syndecan-1 and regulation of the heparanase-syndecan1 axis in the invasiveness of gallbladder carcinoma cells. Methods 1. Generation of a gallbladder cancer cell line overexpressing a heparanase (GBD-SD) transgene. 2. Western blot analysis of syndecan-1 levels of GBD-SD and control gallbladder carcinoma (GBC-SD) cells. 3. RT-PCR analysis of s...

Urofacial syndrome (UFS; previously Ochoa syndrome) is an autosomal recessive disease characterized by incomplete bladder emptying during micturition. This is associated with a dyssynergia in which the urethral walls contract at the same time as the detrusor smooth muscle in the body of the bladder. UFS is also characterized by an abnormal facial expression upon smiling, and bilateral weakness ...