BACKGROUND Maspin is a 42 kDa protein known to act as a tumor suppressor. Although its function has not been fully elucidated, numerous reports have investigated the prognostic impact of maspin in patients with several types of cancer. However, there have been no reports on the association between maspin expression and the prognosis of patients with soft tissue sarcomas (STS). The aim of this s...

PURPOSE The binding of either insulin, or estrogen or progesterone to their specific receptors on neutrophils has been reported to stimulate nitric oxide (NO) induced maspin synthesis in these cells. Experiments were carried out to determine the role of insulin receptor interaction in the nitric oxide induced maspin synthesis in neutrophils that was effected by estrogen or progesterone. METHO...

Gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) is a group of conditions that originate from the abnormal proliferation of trophoblastic cells. GTDs encompass hydatidiform moles (HMs) and gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN). GTNs are a group of malignant diseases that require chemotherapy, or more aggressive treatment. There is a requirement for more tumor markers to predict the development of GT...

Maspin is a novel serine protease inhibitor (serpin) with tumor suppressive potential in breast and prostate cancer, acting at the level of tumor invasion and metastasis. It was subsequently demonstrated that maspin inhibits tumor invasion, at least in part, by inhibiting cell motility. Interestingly, in cell-free solutions, maspin does not inhibit several serine proteases including tissue-type...

OBJECTIVES In numerous malignancies, angiogenin (ANG) and Maspin are important proangiogenic and antiangiogenic regulators, respectively. The aim of this study was to identify potential relationships between the biological roles of these two proteins in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). METHODS Immunohistochemical staining for ANG and Maspin was performed on specimens from 76 consecut...

Maspin is a member of the serpin family of protease inhibitors and is a tumor suppressor gene acting at the level of tumor invasion and metastasis. This in vivo activity correlates with the ability of maspin to inhibit cell migration in vitro. This behavior suggests that maspin inhibits matrix-degrading proteases, such as those of the plasminogen activation system, in a similar manner to the se...

BACKGROUND Molecular mechanisms responsible for carcinogenesis in upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UUTUC) are not yet clear. This study aimed to examine and correlate the subcellular localization of activin A, maspin, and the androgen receptor (AR) with demographic characteristics, pathological grade, and stage of UUTUC in a Taiwanese population, and to investigate the regulatory mecha...

BACKGROUND Maspin, a recently identified protein related to the family of serpins, is believed to play a role in human breast cancer. In an effort to improve the present methods of detection, we have developed a reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay for maspin transcript to identify small numbers of mammary carcinoma cells in the peripheral blood and bone marrow of pati...

Maspin is a member of the serpin family, whose expression is altered in neoplasia and malignancies of many tissues. Underexpression of maspin has been reported in breast and prostatic cancers, but in some cancers such as ovarian, colorectal and pancreatic carcinoma, it was found to be up-regulated. This study aimed at demonstrating the expression of maspin in human endometrial tissue and search...

Ku70, a DNA repair protein, was recently identified as a critical anti-apoptotic protein that inhibits Bax translocation to mitochondria. The dissociation of Bax from Ku70 is essential for the apoptotic activity of Bax. Here, we show that maspin, a tumor suppressor protein frequently lost in cancer, regulates this process. Maspin increased cell death in a Ku70 acetylation-dependent manner. Masp...