Background: Heparanase and endothelin-1/endothelin A receptor (ET-1/ETAR) expressions increase in cancer. This condition enhances tumor progression and correlates with poor survival. Limited data are documented regarding the role of heparanase and ET-1/ETAR in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). We sought to characterize the correlation between heparanase and ET-1/ETAR in EOC.Methods: Thirty patie...

Heparanase is a heparan sulfate degrading endoglycosidase participating in extracellular matrix degradation and remodeling. Heparanase is synthesized as a 65 kDa non-active precursor that subsequently undergoes proteolytic cleavage, yielding 8 kDa and 50 kDa protein subunits that heterodimerize to form an active enzyme. The protease responsible for heparanase processing is currently unknown, as...

BACKGROUND Heparanase expression is induced in many types of cancers, including melanoma, and promotes tumor growth, angiogenesis and metastasis. However, there is insufficient data regarding heparanase expression in the metastatic lesions that are the prime target for anti-cancer therapeutics. To that end, we examined heparanase expression in metastatic melanoma and its correlation with clinic...

Heparanase is involved in the cleavage of the HS (heparan sulfate) chain of HSPGs (HS proteoglycans) and hence participates in remodelling of the ECM (extracellular matrix) and BM (basement membrane). In the present study we have shown that NGF (nerve growth factor) promoted nuclear enrichment of EGR1 (early growth response 1), a transcription factor for heparanase, and markedly induced heparan...

Heparanase is overexpressed in many solid tumor cells and is capable of specifically cleaving heparan sulfate, and this activity is associated with the metastatic potential of tumor cells; however, the activation mechanism of heparanase has remained unknown. In this study, we investigated the link between disulfide bond formation and the activation of heparanase in human tumor cells. Mass spect...

Ameloblastoma is the most common odontogenic neoplasm, particularized by its local invasiveness. Heparanase is the endo-glucuronidase enzyme that specifically cleaves heparan sulfate, the important modulator of extracellular matrix, and related to invasion of tumor cells. In this study, we addressed to show the gene expression and localization of heparanase in ameloblastoma. Immunohistochemistr...

Heparanase promotes tumor invasion and metastasis in several malignancies including breast cancer. However, the roles and regulation mechanisms of heparanase during breast cancer progression are still not fully understood. The aim of this study is to determine the differential regulation of heparanase gene expression in specific stages of breast cancer by DNA methylation. We detected levels of ...

Heparanase is an endoglycosidase that specifically cleaves heparan sulfate side chains, a class of glycosaminoglycans abundantly present in the extracellular matrix and on the cell surface. Heparanase activity is strongly implicated in tumor metastasis attributed to remodeling of the subepithelial and subendothelial basement membranes, resulting in dissemination of metastatic cancer cells. More...

BACKGROUND Heparanase is an endoglycosidase that degrades heparan sulfate, the main polysaccharide constituent of the extracellular matrix and basement membrane. Expression of the heparanase gene is associated with the invasive, angiogenic, and metastatic potential of diverse malignant tumors and cell lines. We used gene-silencing strategies to evaluate the role of heparanase in malignancy and ...

The beta-endoglucuronidase heparanase plays an important role in tumor invasion, a process that is significantly enhanced by hypoxia. We have used a strategy of stable transfection with antisense to derive ovarian carcinoma cell lines that express different levels of heparanase and used these to demonstrate that invasion correlates with heparanase activity. Secreted heparanase activity was incr...