Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027960 (mole)
 21,279 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

High levels of cytosolic cathepsin D expression have been associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer node-negative patients. In this work, we provide evidence that three cell lines established from human metastatic melanomas--IIB-MEL-J, IIB-MEL-LES, and IIB-MEL-IAN--express high levels of procathepsin D mRNA. IIB-MEL-J cells secreted into the conditioned media about 30% of the newly synthesized protein, which was active at acidic pH. Melanoma tumors arising in nude mice after injection of the three different cell lines expressed high levels of procathepsin D mRNA. Moreover, 13 human metastatic melanomas expressed variable levels of procathepsin D mRNA. To study the possible association between cathepsin D expression and melanoma development, samples corresponding to 10 primary tumors, 11 metastatic melanomas, 10 dysplastic nevi, 27 nevocellular nevi, and normal melanocytes were studied by immunohistochemistry for cathepsin D-specific staining. We found that cathepsin D was expressed in all of the dysplastic nevi and primary and metastatic melanomas tested but in only 18% of nevocellular nevi (five of 27), whereas normal melanocytes showed no cathepsin D expression. The overall data indicate that cathepsin D is expressed at a high level by melanoma cells, and because of its expression in preneoplastic lesions, it may be associated with melanoma development.
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PMID:Expression of cathepsin D in primary and metastatic human melanoma and dysplastic nevi. 786 Sep 98

Cathepsin D is an aspartic lysosomal endopeptidase present in most mammalian cells. Overexpression of cathepsin D is associated with the progression of several human cancers including melanoma. We examined the expression levels of cathepsin D in 20 primary malignant melanomas, 20 metastatic malignant melanomas, 20 benign nevus pigmentosus and 10 normal skin samples in Japanese. In normal skin, granular or dotted pattern of positive staining was observed along the granular layer of epidermis and hair follicle with apparent moderate to strong staining in sebaceous and eccrine glands. The percent positivity and staining intensity of cathepsin D in primary and metastatic malignant melanomas were significantly higher than that of nevus pigmentosus. Moreover, the expression levels of cathepsin D in metastatic malignant melanomas were significantly higher than those of primary malignant melanomas. Data from our and previous reports strongly supports a notion that the upregulation of cathepsin D may be critically involved in the malignant transformation and progression of melanocytic tumors.
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PMID:Overexpression of cathepsin D in malignant melanoma. 2451 68