In recent years, the role and physiological regulation of the serine protease tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) and its inhibitors, including plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1), in the brain have received much attention. However, as studies focusing these issues are difficult to perform in humans, a great majority of the studies conducted to date have utilized rodent in vivo ...

Low plasma fibrinolytic activity in association with increased plasma plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 ( PAI-1) levels has been linked to an increased risk of atherosclerosis in obesity and type 2 diabetes. We tested the hypothesis that troglitazone, which improves insulin sensitivity and lowers plasma insulin levels in insulin-resistant obese subjects and patients with t y p e 2 diabetes, wou...

OBJECTIVES To establish baseline concentrations of plasminogen activators and their inhibitors in normal knee synovial fluids, and to compare them with well characterised osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) knee fluids. METHODS A total of 26 normal subjects, 71 patients with OA, and 17 patients with RA underwent knee aspiration. Patients with OA were subclassified according to p...

Platelet-rich thrombi are resistant to lysis by tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA). Although platelet a-granules contain plasminogen activator inhibitor-l (PAI-l), a fastacting inhibitor of t-PA, the contribution of PAL1 to the antifibrinolytic effect of platelets has remained a subject of controversy. We recently reported a patient with a homozygous mutation within the PAL1 gene that res...

Platelet-rich thrombi are resistant to lysis by tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA). Although platelet a-granules contain plasminogen activator inhibitor-l (PAI-l), a fastacting inhibitor of t-PA, the contribution of PAL1 to the antifibrinolytic effect of platelets has remained a subject of controversy. We recently reported a patient with a homozygous mutation within the PAL1 gene that res...

BACKGROUND Derangement in fibrinolytic markers can result in thrombosis and cardiovascular problems. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been reported to affect the levels of these markers. It is unclear how long a patient can be exposed to ART before the effect of the drugs on the fibrinolytic markers becomes noticeable; this short-term antiretroviral therapy (START) study aimed to answer this qu...

Hyaluronan or hyaluronic acid (HA) has been used to treat osteoarthritic knees for more than 30 years. Here, we tested the hypothesis that HA with high molecular weight (MW) would have greater effects than HA with low MW on the expression of the plasminogen activator (PA)/plasmin system and gelatinases [matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-9] during early development of osteoarthritis (OA)....

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate factors affecting zona pellucida (ZP) solubility in bovine embryos during hatching in vitro. In Exp. 1, the relationship between blastocoelic expansion and ZP solubility was determined. Day-6 embryos (n = 42) with good or excellent quality grades were cultured (Cultured embryos), whereas embryos of fair quality (Not-cultured embryos) were immediately p...

The effects of both clot-bound and circulating plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) on endogenous fibrinolysis were investigated in a rat model of pulmonary embolism. Iodine-125 fibrin(ogen)-labeled blood-clot homogenates were delivered through the left jugular vein to the lung microvasculature, and the subsequent extent of the clot lysis was monitored by measuring the release of 125I-fibr...