Urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) binds pro-urokinase plasminogen activator (pro-uPA) and thereby localizes it near plasminogen, causing the generation of active uPA and plasmin on the cell surface. uPAR and uPA are overexpressed in a variety of human tumors and tumor cell lines, and expression of uPAR and uPA is highly correlated to tumor invasion and metastasis. To exploit these...

We compared urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA) in fluid phase and u-PA bound with its receptor on human blood monocytes with respect to proteolytic activity and susceptibility to inactivation by the plasminogen activator inhibitors PAI-1 and PAI-2. Receptor-bound u-PA is catalytically twice as efficient as fluid-phase u-PA. Fluid-phase u-PA is susceptible to rapid inhibition by PAI-1 a...