BACKGROUND Maspin is a serpin family of protease inhibitors. Althouth maspin has been considered a tumor suppressor that inhibits the motility, invasion, and metastasis of breast and prostatic cancer cells, there are many conflicting reports about maspin expression and cancer prognosis. METHODS To investigate whether the expression of maspin could be used as a prognostic marker in pancreatic ...

Celastrus orbiculatus Thunb. has been used as a remedy against cancer and inflammatory diseases for thousands of years in China. Maspin is expressed in normal cells and downregulated in prostate tumor cells. The underlying mechanisms between C. orbiculatus extract (COE) and maspin remain unclear. In the present study, 3 target-specific 19-25 nucleotide maspin small interfering RNAs were designe...

Maspin is a unique member of the serpin family involved in regulation of cell migration, apoptosis and angiogenesis in breast and prostate cancers. In this study maspin expression in comparison with c-erbB-2 (HER2/neu) oncogene expression and microvessel density was investigated. The examined material included specimens of primary invasive ductal breast cancer derived from 69 patients. They wer...

Maspin, identified as a 42 kDa unique tumor suppressive serine protease inhibitor (serpin), has multifaceted biological functions by interacting with various target molecules under physiological and pathological conditions including oxidative stress. However, the type of post-translational modification that confers the specific binding affinity of maspin to target molecules, such as glutathione...

Maspin, a serine protease inhibitor (serpin), can suppress tumor growth and metastasis in vivo and tumor cell motility and invasion in vitro. This may occur through maspin-mediated inhibition of pericellular proteolysis. In a recent report, we provided evidence that maspin may also suppress tumor progression by enhancing cellular sensitivity to apoptotic stimuli. To our knowledge, maspin is the...

PURPOSE Evaluation of Maspin marker in TCC of urine bladder, its grade, and stage, and also to compare Maspin expression in normal transitional cell epithelium and TCC in patients admitted to Modarres Hospital from 2009 to 2012. MATERIALS & METHODS Paraffin blocks of bladder tissue, from total number of 76 patients with TCC, and normal epithelium were included. Slides were prepared, and stain...

Maspin (Mammary Serine Protease Inhibitor) was first reported in 1994 as a serpin with tumor suppressive properties. Maspin was initially isolated through subtractive hybridization and differential display analysis as a 42kDa protein that is expressed in normal mammary epithelial cells but reduced or absent in breast carcinomas. Further research led to maspin’s characterization as a class II tu...

AIMS To test whether changes in the subcellular localization of maspin parallel morphological progression in pulmonary adenocarcinoma, we compared its expression between lepidic and invasive growth patterns. METHODS Applying immunohistochemistry, we compared maspin expression in lepidic and invasive growth patterns occurring in different tumours (series #1, n = 86) as well as within the same ...

Increased maspin expression in the colon is related to colon cancer risk and patient survival. Maspin is induced by the hydrophobic bile acid, deoxycholate (DOC), which is an endogenous carcinogen and inducer of oxidative stress and DNA damage in the colon. Persistent exposure of colon epithelial cells, in vitro, to high physiologic levels of DOC results in increased constitutive levels of masp...

Maspin is a unique serine protease inhibitor of which the down-regulation is associated with the development of breast cancers. In vitro, recombinant maspin inhibits tumor cell migration and invasion. Overexpression of maspin in transgenic mice is protective against tumor progression. Additionally, maspin acts as an angiogenesis inhibitor in rat cornea model and in a xenograft tumor model. To a...