Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.4.21.73 (urokinase-type plasminogen activator)
 10,685 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Cultures of transformed fibroblasts actively involved in extracellular matrix degradation have been examined for initial activation of serine and metallo protease cascade systems. Rous sarcoma virus transformed chick embryo fibroblasts (RSVCEF), in contrast to transformed mammalian cells, produce active, two chain urokinase-type plasminogen activator (tcu-PA). Active tcu-PA is found in serum-free, plasmin-free conditioned medium from RSVCEF cultures as determined by two independent methods, immunoprecipitation and differential DFP sensitivity. RSVCEF cultures synthesize and secrete inactive, single chain uPA (scu-PA) which is converted to tcu-PA in a time dependent manner by a catalytic mechanism that appears to involve a functioning uPA receptor on the surface of intact cells. The enzyme activity responsible for this conversion may represent the initiating catalytic event in the PA/plasminogen serine protease cascade system. A 70 kDa prometalloprotease capable of degrading denatured collagen following its activation also is significantly elevated in RSVCEF cultures over that of normal CEF. Trace amounts of the active 62 kDa form of the metalloprotease (gelatinase) is found in the transformed RSVCEF cultures indicating that these cultures produce a natural activator of the prometalloprotease. Plasmin and/or PA do not appear to be the activator of this enzyme as determined by indirect inhibition assays and direct assays employing purified enzymes. The possible central position of pro PA and the 70 kDa prometalloprotease in an interacting, complex protease cascade system involved in extracellular matrix degradation is discussed.
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PMID:Serine protease and metallo protease cascade systems involved in pericellular proteolysis. 196 54

The effects of thrombin, interleukin-1 (IL-1), tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and gamma-interferon (gamma-IFN) on the release of plasminogen activator (PA) and inhibitor (PAI) were studied using cultivated human glomerular epithelial cells (GECs). Species of PAs and PAI secreted from the GECs were urokinase-type PA (u-PA) and tissue-type PA (t-PA), while the major species was a single chain u-PA in the amount of 28.6 +/- 2.34 ng/10(5) cells for 24 hours (N = 4, mean +/- SD), and PAI-1. The addition of increased concentrations of thrombin (0.1 to 31.6 U/ml) into confluent cultures enhanced the GECs to release u-PA, t-PA and PAI-1 in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The incubation of the GECs with 10 U/ml thrombin resulted in about a fourfold increase in the concentration of u-PA, threefold in t-PA and twofold in PAI-1. All thrombin effects, however, were suppressed by the simultaneous addition of cycloheximide, indicating that the enhancing effects of thrombin were due to an increase in the production of PAs and PAI-1, via protein synthesis. These thrombin effects appeared to be dependent upon the enzymatically active site of thrombin because DFP-thrombin had no effect. In the conditioned medium which was under continuous thrombin stimulation for 24 hours, no u-PA activity was detectable, even after the plasmin treatment, because a single chain u-PA was degraded by the thrombin. The stimulation of cultured GECs with thrombin only for the first three hours in 24 hour cultivation showed an apparent increase in the antigenic amount of u-PA. IL-1 enhanced the release of t-PA and PAI-1, and TNF did that of u-PA and t-PA, while gamma-IFN showed no significant effects. These findings indicate that the GECs participate in the regulation of extracapillary fibrinolysis in the glomerular microenvironment, as being modulated by thrombin and two cytokines, IL-1 and TNF.
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PMID:Secretion of plasminogen activator and its inhibitor by glomerular epithelial cells. 211 68

The receptor for urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) has been previously shown not to internalize its ligand, but rather to focalize its activity at the cell surface, allowing a regulated cell surface plasmin dependent proteolysis. The receptor in fact binds the proenzyme pro-uPA and allows its very efficient conversion to the active two chains form. Receptor bound active uPA can also interact with its specific type 1 inhibiror (PAI-1) which is therefore able to inhibit the cell surface plasmin formation. In this paper we show that the uPA-PAI-1 complex bound to the uPA receptor is internalized and degraded. U937 cells were incubated at 4 degrees C with labeled uPA-PAI-1 (and other ligands), the temperature then raised to 37 degrees C and the fate of the ligand followed for 3 h thereafter. The uPA-PAI-1 complex was internalized into the cells (i.e. could not be dissociated by acid treatment) and thereafter degraded (i.e. appeared in the supernatant in a non TCA-precipitable form). Other ligands (free uPA, ATF and DFP-treated uPA) were not internalized nor degraded. The degradation of the uPA-PAI-1 complex is preceded by internalization and is inhibited by chloroquine, an inhibitor of lysosomal protein degradation. These data suggest the existence of a cellular cycle of uPA. After synthesis pro-uPA is secreted, bound to the receptor and activated to two chain uPA. On the surface, uPA can activate surface bound plasminogen to produce surface bound plasmin. In the presence of PAI-1 uPA activity is inhibited and plasmin production interrupted, while the uPA-PAI-1 complex is internalized and degraded.
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PMID:Receptor-mediated internalization and degradation of urokinase is caused by its specific inhibitor PAI-1. 215 92

Neutrophils (PMN) are important in the cellular phase of blood fibrino lytic activity (FA). The contribution of monocytes (MC), which have FA, is unclear. To determine the relative roles of these cells to activity in normal blood, we examined, by solid phase radiofibrin assay, FA of normal blood and plasma, and of purified PMN and MC, with and without plasminogen (PLG), mini-plasminogen (mPLG), the other major elastase fragment of PLG, or autologous plasma. PMN alone (0.5 x 10(6)/ml) had striking activity (292 +/- 25 SEM ng fibrin lysed/h; n = 10 normal subjects) while MC alone (0.5 x 10(6)/ml) had mean FA of 32 +/- 4 ng/h, which could be accounted for by contaminating PMN (36 +/- 8 ng/h). Thus, in a 1 h assay (when cellular FA accounts for 70-80% of FA in whole blood), normal numbers of MC (0.5 x 10(6)/ml) had no detectable FA when assayed with PLG or normal plasma. With longer assay times (2-6 h), PLG-dependent (plasminogen activator, PA) activity was demonstrated with mixtures of MC and PLG or plasma. This PA activity was released into the medium and required prior contact of MC and an intact, soluble PLG molecule for PA activity to be detected in medium (suggesting a PLG-MC triggering mechanism), since activity was reduced or absent when MC were exposed to mPLG, the other major elastase fragment of PLG, or solid phase PLG. Exposure of MC to solid phase fibrin did not result in PA release. MC PA activity was little affected by cycloheximide pretreatment, indicating preformed rather than newly synthesized PA. By SDS-PAGE and fibrin zymography, MC extracts revealed a single PA band with features of pro-urokinase (single chain urinary-type PA): Mr 55,000, inhibition by antiurokinase antibody (but not by anti-tPA), and resistance to inhibition by DFP. By ELISA assay, approximate normal monocyte content of this PA (as Mr 55,000 urokinase) was 0.03 fg (3.3 x 10(8) molecules) per cell.
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PMID:Fibrinolytic activity of normal human blood monocytes. 292 5

alpha-Thrombin, DFP-thrombin, and ionophore A23187 induce the rapid release (less than 5 minutes) of a variety of proteins, including t-PA forms (Mr 110 and 70 k, after SDS-PAGE) from primary cultures, and both t-PA and u-PA (Mr 90 and 54 k) from subcultured human HUVECs. All PA activity forms are rapidly decreased in the releasates by some unknown mechanism. gamma-Thrombin does not induce the release of PAs from cultured HUVECs.
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PMID:Rapid release and deactivation of plasminogen activators in human endothelial cell cultures in the presence of thrombin and ionophore A23187. 309 27

Human and rabbit kidney and urine contain an inactive form of kallikrein. Studies on the mRNA sequence suggested that the active form of the enzyme and the propeptide are linked by a peptide bond between a basic and hydrophobic amino acid. We studied the activation of prokallikrein by serine proteases and a neutral metalloproteinase, thermolysin, because serine proteases cleave the peptide chain after a basic amino acid and thermolysin before a hydrophobic amino acid. The activity of kallikrein was measured by RIA and with a fluorogenic peptide substrate. Trypsin was used as a standard reference activator. We found that human plasmin and plasminogen, activated by urokinase, activate prokallikrein. Pronase coupled to Sepharose also enhanced the activity of the renal kallikrein zymogen. On a molar basis, thermolysin was a more effective activator of prokallikrein than trypsin. The activation by thermolysin was blocked by the inhibitor phosphoramidon, but not by DFP or SBTI. These experiments indicate that, in addition to serine proteases, neutral metalloproteases of tissues may activate prokallikrein.
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PMID:Activation of human and rabbit prokallikrein by serine and metalloproteases. 315 29

Plasminogen activator was purified from the soluble fraction of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and biological and immunological characteristics of the activator were examined by electrophoretic enzymography. The purified fraction showed a single band with a molecular weight of 53,000. The enzyme activity was eliminated in the presence of DFP and did not display fibrin affinity. Immunological tests revealed that the plasminogen activator reacted with IgG of antiurokinase but not with that of tissue-type plasminogen activator. However, the plasminogen activator cleaved S-2288 to a greater extent than S-2444 in contrast to urokinase.
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PMID:Plasminogen activator in bronchoalveolar fluid. 369 85

The subcellular localization of plasminogen activator (PA) in human neutrophils was studied. The cells were disrupted by nitrogen cavitation and fractionated on Percoll density gradients into three major components containing the plasma membranes, the specific granules, and the azurophilic granules. The biochemical markers we used to identify these organelles were alkaline phosphatase, vitamin B12-binding protein, and beta-glucuronidase, respectively. Using the radioactive fibrin plate method, PA activity and plasminogen-independent fibrinolytic activity were measured. In resting neutrophils, PA was associated mainly with the membranes of the specific granules. In five individual experiments the activity of this fraction varied from 79 to 100% of the total; the remaining activity was found to be associated with the plasma membrane, and no activity was present in the azurophilic granules. In neutrophils that were activated by exposure to PMA (20 ng/ml for 15 min at 37 degrees C), the total recoverable PA activity remained unchanged; however, the main peak of activity (85% of total) shifted from the specific granules to the plasma membranes. The magnitude of the reduction of the enzyme in the specific granules paralleled that of vitamin B12-binding protein. PMA-activated, intact neutrophils had approximately 12-fold more surface-bound PA activity than resting cells. Recovery of PA activity from neutrophils was critically dependent on pretreatment of the intact cells with DFP before cavitation; 100-fold more PA activity was detected in DFP-pretreated cells. At the same time, this pretreatment reduced the plasminogen-independent fibrinolytic activity by approximately sevenfold. We determined that PA present in the neutrophils is of the urokinase (UK) type and that the enzyme is produced and stored as a pro-UK, a form insensitive to DFP inhibition. The reduction in the level of proteases (measured as fibrinolytic activity) and the resistance of pro-UK to DFP are most likely the two major reasons for the greatly improved recovery of PA from the DFP-pretreated cells. These findings show that in resting neutrophils PA is stored in the specific granules, and that during activation, it translocates to the outer surface of the plasma membranes, thus equipping the cell with an ecto-proteolytic potential.
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PMID:Human neutrophil plasminogen activator is localized in specific granules and is translocated to the cell surface by exocytosis. 374

Human embryonic lung fibroblast (MRC5) cells secreted small amounts of plasminogen activators into normal, serum-free harvest medium. Stimulation with calcium led to markedly enhanced levels of activator. The major species of plasminogen activator in the harvest medium of the stimulated cultures resembled u-PA when analysed by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by fibrin zymography. This activator was partially-purified using controlled-pore glass and Blue Sepharose CL6B. Characterisation by fibrin zymography in the presence of specific antibody, by 3H-DFP labelling and by fibrin-binding ability indicated that the activator was indistinguishable from high molecular weight u-PA. The possible physiological role of the production of relatively large amounts of u-PA by a lung cell capable of producing both u-PA and t-PA is discussed.
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PMID:Identification of the calcium-inducible plasminogen activators secreted by a human diploid fibroblast cell line (MRC-5). 408 34

Very low density lipoprotein receptor (VLDL-R) was found to be expressed in bovine mammary gland and the human breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7 as an M(r) 105,000 variant, and in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells transfected with human VLDL-R cDNA as an M(r) 130,000 variant. The receptor was purified by ligand affinity chromatography with immobilized M(r) 40,000 receptor-associated protein (RAP). The purified receptor was found to bind urokinase-type plasminogen activator-type-1 plasminogen activator inhibitor complex (u-PA.PAI-1), while there was no or very weak binding of active site blocked u-PA (DFP-u-PA), PAI-1 or u-PA-type-2 plasminogen activator inhibitor complex. The binding of u-PA.PAI-1 was blocked by RAP. The transfected CHO cells had an efficient, RAP-sensitive endocytosis of u-PA.PAI-1, severalfold higher than non-transfected parental CHO cells. u-PA.PAI-1 endocytosis was partially inhibited by DFP-u-PA, which blocks binding of the complex to the u-PA receptor. RAP and DFP-u-PA sensitive u-PA.PAI-1 endocytosis was also observed in MCF-7 cells, which were without detectable levels of other RAP-binding endocytosis receptors. These results show that VLDL-R represents a novel endocytosis mechanism for u-PA receptor-bound u-PA.PAI-1.
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PMID:Very low density lipoprotein receptor binds and mediates endocytosis of urokinase-type plasminogen activator-type-1 plasminogen activator inhibitor complex. 765 71


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