The mouse urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) gene was used as a model macrophage colony-stimulating factor 1 (CSF-1)-inducible gene to investigate CSF-1 signalling pathways. Nuclear run-on analysis showed that induction of uPA mRNA by CSF-1 and phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) was at the transcriptional level in bone marrow-derived macrophages. CSF-1 and PMA synergized strongly in the in...

Risk assessment and prediction of response to treatment are prerequisites for individualized adjuvant therapy decisions in breast cancer. The strong prognostic impact of the two invasion factors urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and its inhibitor, plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1), in breast cancer has recently been validated at level-I evidence. This article considers the...

Human lung microvascular endothelial cells (HLMECs) secreted 1.5-15 times more urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) antigen than human hepatic microvascular endothelial cells, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), angioma endothelial cells, and lung fibroblasts. All of these cells also secreted a 100-fold greater amount of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 than of uPA antigen, ...

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...

Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) confers invasive potential to transformed cells. Cancer cells express high numbers of uPA receptors (uPARs), which concentrate uPA activity at the invasive edge of cancer cells and the tumor mass. We synthesized a conjugate between human uPA and saporin (SAP), a ribosome-inactivating protein produced by Saponaria officinalis. Results of cell-killing as...

OBJECTIVE Inflammation and fibrosis are intertwined in multiple disease processes. We have previously found that over-expression of urokinase plasminogen activator in macrophages induces spontaneous macrophage accumulation and fibrosis specific to the heart in mice. Understanding the relationship between inflammation and fibrosis in the heart is critical to developing therapies for diverse myoc...

We have previously isolated from human hemofiltrate an N-terminally truncated form of the hemofiltrate CC chemokine 1 (HCC-1), and characterized HCC-1[9-74] as a strong agonist of CCR1, CCR5, and to a lower extent CCR3. In this study, we show that conditioned media from human tumor cell lines PC-3 and 143B contain proteolytic activities that convert HCC-1 into the [9-74] form. This activity was...

The potential of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) to regulate the expression of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) in a gastric cancer cell is not widely acknowledged. To identify the genes associated with the plasminogen activator proteolytic axis by HGF, we used cDNA microarray technology and selected genes upregulated or downregulated in two gastric cell lines (NUGC-3 and MKN-28). First, IL...

Basic fibroblast growth factor, a potent angiogenesis inducer, stimulates urokinase (uPA) production by vascular endothelial cells. In both basic fibroblast growth factor-stimulated and -nonstimulated bovine capillary endothelial and human umbilical vein endothelial cells single-chain uPA binding is mediated by a membrane protein with a Mr of 42,000. Exposure of bovine capillary or endothelial ...

uPA (urokinase-type plasminogen activator) is a potential therapeutic target in a variety of pathological conditions, including cancer. In order to find new principles for inhibiting uPA in murine cancer models, we screened a phage-displayed peptide library with murine uPA as bait. We thereby isolated several murine uPA-binding peptide sequences, the predominant of which was the disulfide-bridg...