Many cancer cell lines and cancers overexpress receptor bound urokinase plasminogen activator on the cell surface. The urokinase plasminogen activator bound to its receptor remains on the cell surface for a prolonged period of time. When urokinase plasminogen activator/urokinase plasminogen activator receptor complex binds plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1), the inhibitor triggers a series...

Urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and its receptor are key components of a cell surface proteolytic cascade used by tumor cells and capillary endothelial cells for basement membrane invasion, a process required for metastasis and angiogenesis. We have cloned, expressed, and purified the epidermal growth factor-like domain of murine uPA alone and fused it to the Fc portion of human IgG as hi...

The capacity of cells to interact with the plasminogen activator, urokinase, and the zymogen, plasminogen, was assessed using the promyeloid leukemic U937 cell line and the diploid fetal lung GM1380 fibroblast cell line. Urokinase bound to both cell lines in a time-dependent, specific, and saturable manner (Kd = 0.8-2.0 nM). An active catalytic site was not required for urokinase binding to the...

Idell S, Allen T, Chen S, Koenig K, Mazar A, Azghani A. Intrapleural activation, processing, efficacy, and duration of protection of singlechain urokinase in evolving tetracycline-induced pleural injury in rabbits. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 292: L25–L32, 2007. First published September 15, 2006; doi:10.1152/ajplung.00118.2006.—Intrapleural fibrinolysins have been used to treat pleural ...

Small-cell lung carcinoma releases progalanin. The released progalanin is activated via a nonclassical processing pathway, being processed into an active form of galanin (1-20) by plasmin in extracellular components. Plasmin is produced from plasminogen activators. To clarify the regulation of progalanin via plasminogen activation by urokinase and tissue-plasminogen activator (t-PA), we investi...

The gastroduodenal mucosa has a rich blood supply. An active fibrinolytic system is presumably required to maintain vascular patency, and impairment may result in reduced blood flow, focal tissue necrosis, and peptic ulcerogenesis. Tissue type and urokinase type plasminogen activator activity (expressed as mIU/mg protein) and plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 antigen were assayed in homoge...

Single-chain pro-urokinase is an inactive proenzyme form of human urokinase with a single-chain structure and a Mr of 50,000 and converted to the active two-chain form by catalytic amounts of plasmin. It was isolated from culture fluid of human kidney cells and subjected to chemical (CNBr) and proteolytic (lysyl endopeptidase) degradation. The resulting peptides were separated by reverse-phase ...

Plasma levels of alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor (alpha 2PI), plasmin-alpha 2PI complex and cross-linked fibrin derivatives (XDP) were measured in 8 patients (12 episodes) with thromboembolic disorders on the initial administration of urokinase. In conjunction with a decrease in plasma alpha 2PI activity and antigen, plasmin-alpha 2PI complex increased following urokinase infusion in all cases except...