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)

The role of proteolytic enzymes in the hCG-induced increase in testicular vasopermeability and neutrophil extravasation was studied using protease inhibitors. An intra-testicular injection of hCG together with incubation medium conditioned by polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMNs) caused a significant increase in vasopermeability and a coincident extravasation of PMN's from the postcapillary venules in the rat testis. When p-aminobenzamidine, a serine protease inhibitor which inhibits urokinase-type plasminogen activator, was administered together with hCG in the incubation medium, both the permeability increase and PMN extravasation were prevented. Aprotinin, another serine protease inhibitor, and Eglin C, a specific neutrophil elastase and cathepsin G inhibitor were, however, without effect. None of these inhibitors caused any non-specific vascular effects in the testis at the concentrations used. These results support the concept that the hCG-induced increase in vasopermeability in the rat testis is related to extravasation of PMNs and suggest that urokinase-type plasminogen activator is involved in migration of these cells through the postcapillary venular walls.
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PMID:Plasminogen activator is involved in the hCG-induced neutrophil extravasation and vasopermeability increase in the rat testis. 169 41

Leukocyte elastase and leukocyte cathepsin G degrade porcine plasminogen primarily by hydrolysis of the A447-I448 bond between kringle4 and kringle5. The rate of formation of des-kringle1-4-plasminogen is faster with elastase (k"obs greater than 10(5) mol-1 s-1) than with cathepsin G (kobs less than 300 mol-1 s-1). In contrast to elastase, leukocyte cathepsin G does not inactivate alpha 2-antiplasmin. Consequently, plasminogen activation by urokinase in the presence of alpha 2-antiplasmin is elastase-dependent, but cathepsin G does not overcome the action of alpha 2-antiplasmin. The rate-enhancing effect of fibrin(ogen) fragments in plasminogen activation by tissue-type plasminogen activator is also disabled efficiently by these proteases. It is concluded that enhancement of plasmin expression by neutrophil proteases is accounted for primarily by the action of elastase.
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PMID:Neutrophil proteases in plasminogen activation. 171 63

We examined the effects of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor (TNF) on human articular cartilage and chondrocytes in culture. Both TNF alpha and TNF beta stimulated cartilage matrix breakdown during prolonged culture and elevated the levels of plasminogen activator (PA) activity in both the supernatants and cell layers of cultured chondrocytes. Characterization of the PA activities by immunochemistry and by zymography following gel electrophoresis indicated that human chondrocytes produce both urokinase-type PA and tissue-type PA in response to TNF. The addition of both interleukin-1 and TNF alpha or TNF beta to chondrocyte cultures demonstrated a synergism between these cytokines in the generation of PA activity in the culture supernatants and cell layers. Our results suggest that both activated lymphocytes and monocytes may contribute to the cartilage destruction of inflammatory arthritis through their stimulation of chondrocytes with TNF beta and TNF alpha, respectively. Since PA is the only neutral proteinase reported to be elevated in TNF-stimulated chondrocyte cultures, it could have an important role in TNF-mediated cartilage destruction.
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PMID:Effects of tumor necrosis factor alpha and beta on resorption of human articular cartilage and production of plasminogen activator by human articular chondrocytes. 232 32

The [Arg15,Glu52]aprotinin gene has been constructed from a synthetic [Glu52]-aprotinin gene via an exchange of the appropriate DNA cassette. The gene has been fused to the N-terminal part of the bacteriophage MS-2 polymerase and expressed in a temperature inducible E. coli expression system. The produced fusion protein is deposited as inclusion bodies. Pure and functionally active [Arg15,Glu52]aprotinin has been obtained after cleavage of the purified fusion protein and renaturation of the aprotinin homologue. Recombinant [Arg15,Glu52]aprotinin shows good inhibition of human anionic and cationic trypsin (Ki less than or equal to 10(-11)M) and of human plasma kallikrein (Ki = 3.2 x 10(-10)M). The inhibition constants for human plasmin are Ki = 1.3 x 10(-10)M and for human urinary kallikrein Ki = 10(-11)M. No inhibition was found with the human proteinases thrombin, coagulation factor Xa, urokinase, tissue plasminogen activator, cathepsin G, leukocyte elastase and pancreatic elastase.
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PMID:Expression, isolation and characterization of recombinant [Arg15,Glu52]aprotinin. 246 33

Culture medium from rabbit uterine cervical fibroblasts contained a procollagenase and a neutral proproteinase which acts as a procollagenase activator. These two proenzymes have been purified by a combination of ion-exchange, affinity and gel chromatographies. The purified neutral proproteinase showed Mr 60,000 with sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis. This neutral proproteinase was activated by trypsin, 4-aminophenylmercuric acetate (APMA) and plasmin, and the active species of the proteinase had Mr 53,000 when activated by APMA; kallikrein and urokinase did not activate this proproteinase. The purified neutral proteinase was inhibited by EDTA, 1,10-phenanthroline and rabbit plasma, but not by serine proteinase inhibitors, suggesting that this proteinase is a metal-dependent proteinase. The purified enzyme could also degrade gelatin, casein, proteoglycan and type IV procollagen. The purified procollagenase had Mr 55,000 and was activated by trypsin, APMA and the active neutral proteinase. These activations were accompanied by decrease in Mr, and the activated species had an Mr which was approx. 10,000 less than that of the procollagenase. In particular, procollagenase activation with neutral proteinase depended on incubation time and proteolytic activity of proteinase. These results indicate that activation of procollagenase by the rabbit uterine neutral proteinase is related to limited proteolysis in the procollagenase molecule.
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PMID:Procollagenase activator produced by rabbit uterine cervical fibroblasts. 303 65

Cytokines capable of stimulating cartilage resorption have frequently been identified as 'interleukin-1 (IL-1)-like' peptides. In this study for the first time we have employed homogeneous recombinant IL-1 alpha and IL-1 beta in an all-human culture system to define the effects of IL-1 on articular cartilage and chondrocytes in culture. Recombinant IL-1 (10-100 U/ml) could stimulate cartilage resorption, although the maximum degree of tissue breakdown rarely reached the levels obtained when cartilage was treated with crude mononuclear-cell conditioned medium or all-trans retinoic acid (1 microM) over a similar time course. Levels of plasminogen activator (PA) activity, a neutral proteinase which may contribute to cartilage destruction in arthritis, increased markedly in the cartilage/chondrocyte culture supernatants and in the chondrocyte cell layers in response to the stimulation of cultures with recombinant IL-1 (1-100 U/ml). Elevated levels of PA activity were detectable after 4-8 h stimulation of the chondrocytes with IL-1 while characterization of the PA activities indicated that both types of PA activity were expressed, viz. urokinase-type PA (u-PA) and tissue-type PA (t-PA). Both IL-1 alpha and IL-1 beta could elicit these responses and their effects were comparable for a given dose. These studies show definitively that pure IL-1, free from contaminating cytokines, is capable of inducing human cartilage resorption and stimulating the expression of two types of PA activity by chondrocytes. In contrast to IL-1, retinoic acid increased the detectable levels of only u-PA in the chondrocyte cell layers. Chondrocyte u-PA may have an important role in cartilage degradative processes since it is one of the few neutral proteinases now known to be increased in activity in retinoid-stimulated cartilage.
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PMID:Recombinant human interleukin-1 stimulates human articular cartilage to undergo resorption and human chondrocytes to produce both tissue- and urokinase-type plasminogen activator. 314 27

Human lumbar disc tissue when extracted with 4M GuHCl and subjected to dissociative CsCl density gradient ultracentrifugation yielded trypsin inhibitor activity in the low bouyant density fractions (rho less than or equal to 1.38 g/ml). Disc proteoglycans sedimented in the high bouyant density fractions (rho greater than or equal to 1.5 g/ml). Sephadex G75F gel filtration of the low bouyant density protein fractions afforded a major low molecular weight (Kav = 0.5) trypsin inhibitor pool which was further purified by trypsin affinity chromatography. This latter step facilitated separation of the trypsin inhibitors from neutral proteinase activity also present. The trypsin inhibitor fraction so isolated was shown to possess potent inhibitory activity against a range of human serine proteinases including leukocyte elastase and cathepsin G, urokinase, kallikrein, plasmin and thrombin. Significantly this serine proteinase inhibitor preparation effectively prevented degradation of proteoglycans by a neutral proteinase also isolated from the human intervertebral disc.
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PMID:Low molecular weight serine proteinase inhibitors of the human intervertebral disc. 348 24

125I-labeled heparin cofactor II (HCII) was mixed with plasma and coagulation was initiated by addition of CaCl2, phospholipids, and kaolin or tissue factor. In the presence of 67 micrograms/ml of dermatan sulfate, radioactivity was detected in a band which corresponded to the thrombin-HCII complex (Mr = 96,000) upon sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. No other complexes were observed. The thrombin-HCII complex was undetectable when 5 units/ml of heparin was present or when prothrombin-deficient plasma was used. In experiments with purified proteases, HCII did not significantly inhibit coagulation factors VIIa, IXa, Xa, XIa, XIIa, kallikrein, activated protein C, plasmin, urokinase, tissue plasminogen activator, leukocyte elastase, the gamma-subunit of nerve growth factor, and the epidermal growth factor-binding protein. HCII inhibited leukocyte cathepsin G slowly, with a rate constant of 8 X 10(4) M-1 min-1 in the presence of dermatan sulfate. These results indicate that the protease specificity of HCII is more restricted than that of other plasma protease inhibitors and suggest that the anticoagulant effect of dermatan sulfate is due solely to inhibition of thrombin by HCII.
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PMID:The protease specificity of heparin cofactor II. Inhibition of thrombin generated during coagulation. 383 15

The correlation between activation of macrophages and increased secretion of plasminogen activator suggests that macrophages are exposed to the protease plasmin. Incubation of 125I-labeled, caseinate-elicited guinea pig peritoneal macrophages with plasmin cleaves a surface protein, gp160, characterized previously by its sensitivity to trypsin. The gp160 fragments produced by plasmin (fr85 and fr71), which remain disulfide-bonded in the membrane, comigrate with the fragments produced by trypsin, indicating close or identical cleavage sites. No other detectable 125I-labeled surface component is cleaved by plasmin. Neither gp160 nor any other detectable 125I-labeled surface component was cleaved by a series of other proteases associated with inflammation including thrombin, collagenase, pancreatic elastase, leukocyte elastase, cathepsin G, and urokinase. Analysis with the use of homogeneous plasmin from guinea pig plasma shows that concentrations as low as 50 micrograms/ml cause measurable cleavage of gp160 in 30 min.
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PMID:Macrophage surface component gp160: sensitivity to plasmin and other proteases. 646 Aug 5

The human intracellular serine proteinase inhibitor, proteinase inhibitor 6 (PI-6), was expressed in the methylotropic yeast Pichia pastoris. The PI-6 cDNA was modified to encode six histidine residues immediately after the initiation codon, and was placed under the control of the P. pastoris alcohol oxidase promoter in the vector pHIL-D2. On the methanol induction, active recombinant PI-6 was produced within the yeast cells, and following cell lysis, was separated from yeast proteins by affinity chromatography using nickel nitrilo-tri-acetic acid (NTA) resin. The interaction of recombinant PI-6 with a range of serine proteinases was studied. Second order association rate constants (ka) were derived for the interaction with trypsin (1.8 x 10(6) M-1 s-1), thrombin (1.2 x 10(5) M-1 s-1), urokinase plasminogen activator (4.0 x 10(4) M-1 s-1), plasmin (1.3 x 10(6) M-1 s-1), and activated protein C (7.5 x 10(3) M-1 s-1). By monitoring complex formation, recombinant PI-6 was also shown to interact with factor Xa. No complex formation was observed with chymotrypsin, human leukocyte elastase, cathepsin G and tissue plasminogen activator, although PI-6 is apparently a substrate for chymotrypsin, leukocyte elastase and cathepsin G.
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PMID:Production and characterization of recombinant human proteinase inhibitor 6 expressed in Pichia pastoris. 754 63


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