A precipitating factor in the development of atherosclerotic lesions is the inappropriate migration and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC) within the intima of the vessel wall. Focusing on the role of extracellular matrix proteins in SMC migration, we have demonstrated that thrombospondin (TSP) itself is a potent modulator of SMC motility and acts to potentiate platelet-derived...

Thrombospondin (TSP), isolated from human platelets, promotes aggregation of both nonstimulated platelets and platelets stimulated with thrombin or ADP. The TSP-promoted aggregation is specific since a monoclonal antibody against TSP inhibits the effect of exogenously added TSP and inhibits thrombin-induced platelet aggregation in the absence of added TSP. Several lines of evidence suggest that...

OBJECTIVE We examined whether plasma levels of angiogenic factors are altered in plasma of patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and whether these factors affect endothelial progenitor cell-induced angiogenesis. METHODS AND RESULTS Plasma was collected from 184 patients with PAD and 330 age-matched healthy controls. Vascular endothelial growth factor and placental growth factor conc...

Thrombospondins TSP-1 and TSP-2 are potent endogenous inhibitors of angiogenesis. They inhibit angiogenesis through direct effects on endothelial cell migration, proliferation, survival, and apoptosis and by antagonizing the activity of VEGF. Several of the membrane receptor systems and signal transduction molecules that mediate the effects of TSP-1 and TSP-2 have been elucidated. TSP-1 and TSP...

Thrombospondin-2 (TSP-2) is an endogenous negative regulator of vascularization in human cancer. TSP-2 regulates angiogenesis through binding and sequestration of the proangiogenic fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2). However, it is unclear whether TSP-2 and FGF-2 are related to prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). To study this issue, we measured serum (Elisa) levels of TSP-2 and FG...

Thrombospondin (TSP) binds to its cellular receptor, CD36 (glycoprotein IV or IIIb), and participates in many adhesive cell interactions. We have shown that the CD36-TSP interaction occurs in a stepwise, conformation-dependent process. CD36 sequence 139-155 binds TSP and induces a second CD36-binding site, which binds CD36 sequence 93-110 with high affinity. To characterize this high affinity C...

Plasma von Willebrand factor (VWF) is a multimeric protein that mediates adhesion of platelets to sites of vascular injury; however, only the very large VWF multimers are effective in promoting platelet adhesion in flowing blood. The multimeric size of VWF can be controlled by the glycoprotein, thrombospondin-1 (TSP1), which facilitates reduction of the disulfide bonds that hold VWF multimers t...

Trisodium phosphate (TSP) has been reported to decrease the recovery of salmonellae from processed poultry carcasses. It has been suggested that the high pH and detergent-like properties of TSP solutions are responsible for the reduction in salmonellae recovery. This project was conducted to determine if controlling pH during salmonellae pre-enrichment alters the effect of TSP on salmonellae re...

Sickle red blood cells (SS-RBCs) have enhanced adhesion to the plasma and subendothelial matrix protein thrombospondin-1 (TSP) under conditions of flow in vitro. TSP has at least four domains that mediate cell adhesion. The goal of this study was to map the site(s) on TSP that binds SS-RBCs. Purified TSP proteolytic fragments containing either the N-terminal heparin-binding domain, or the type ...

BACKGROUND Thrombospondin-2 (TSP-2) is a secreted matricellular glycoprotein that is found to mediate cell-to-extracellular matrix attachment and participates in many physiological and pathological processes. The expression profile of TSP-2 on tumors is controversial, and it up-regulates in some cancers, whereas it down-regulates in others, suggesting that the functional role of TSP-2 on tumors...