EGF receptor (EGFR) promotes intestinal epithelial restitution, an important early process in the reepithelialization of ulcers. During epithelial restitution, the mechanism of EGFR activation is not known. We evaluated the role of TNF-converting enzyme (TACE), a metalloprotease disintegrin that proteolytically processes plasma membrane-anchored EGFR ligand precursors into their mature active f...

Regulation of MUC1 expression and removal is a salient feature of embryo implantation, bacterial clearance, and tumor progression. In some species, embryo implantation is accompanied by a transcriptional decline in uterine epithelial expression of MUC1. In other species, MUC1 is locally removed at blastocyst attachment sites, suggesting a proteolytic activity. Previously, we demonstrated that M...

ADAMs are membrane-anchored proteases that regulate cell behavior by proteolytically modifying the cell surface and ECM. Like other membrane-anchored proteases, ADAMs contain candidate "adhesive" domains downstream of their metalloprotease domains. The mechanism by which membrane-anchored cell surface proteases utilize these putative adhesive domains to regulate protease function in vivo is not...

The metalloprotease ADAMTS13 (a disintegrin and metalloprotease with thrombospondin motif) converts the hyperreactive unusually large (UL) forms of von Willebrand factor (VWF) that are newly released from endothelial cells into less active plasma forms by cleaving a peptide bond in the VWF A2 domain. Familial or acquired deficiency of this metalloprotease is associated with thrombotic thrombocy...

Recent studies investigating thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) have implicated abnormal plasma von Willebrand factor (vWF)-cleaving metalloprotease activity in this disorder. It has been proposed that a metalloprotease cleaves unusually large (UL) multimers of vWF, which enter the circulation from the endothelium. Abnormal metalloprotease activity could result in ULvWF, which could part...

A metalloprotease that digests cartilage proteoglycan optimally at pH 5.3 has been purified (4400-fold) to homogeneity from 20-g samples of human articular cartilage containing about 100 micrograms of enzyme. This enzyme was cleanly separated from a related neutral metalloprotease with an optimum pH of 7.2. The acid metalloprotease displays 40% of its maximum activity at pH 7.2 and so has signi...

To elucidate potential mechanisms of enhanced type 2 matrix metalloprotease levels and activity within the thickened aged rat aorta, the present study measured its mRNA and protein levels and those of its membrane bound activator, MT1-MMP, its endogenous tissue inhibitor, TIMP-2, tissue type, and urokinase plasminogen activators and their receptors, and an inhibitor of plasminogen activation in...

Recent studies investigating thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) have implicated abnormal plasma von Willebrand factor (vWF)-cleaving metalloprotease activity in this disorder. It has been proposed that a metalloprotease cleaves unusually large (UL) multimers of vWF, which enter the circulation from the endothelium. Abnormal metalloprotease activity could result in ULvWF, which could part...

BACKGROUND Squamous dysplasia is the precursor lesion for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). A primary screening test for ESCC which identified this lesion could lead to a reduction in disease-specific mortality. MATERIALS AND METHODS We conducted a population-based screening study in Linzhou, China. All subjects provided blood samples and underwent endoscopy with Lugol's iodine stain...