Extracellular matrix components must be degraded and resynthesized for vascular remodeling to occur. We hypothesized that the hemodynamic environment regulates activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), the primary agents for in vivo matrix degradation, during vascular remodeling in response to changes in transmural pressure and shear stress. Pathological hemodynamic conditions were reproduc...

Background: Formation of tumor cell-platelet aggregates facilitates hematogenous metastases. However, molecular mechanisms implicated in tumor cell-induced platelet aggregation (TCIPA) in colon cancer are unclear. Aim: To investigate mechanisms of TCIPA induced by colon adenocarcinoma cells in vitro. Methods: Human Caco-2 cells were used to study their interactions with platelets using aggregom...

In the postgenomic era, the comprehensive proteomic analysis of metabolic and signaling pathways is inevitably faced with the challenge of large-scale identification and characterization of polypeptides with a particular enzymatic activity. Previous work has shown that a wide variety of enzymatic activities of microbial, plant, and animal origin can be assigned to individual polypeptides using ...

The infective third-stage larvae of Angiostrongylus cantonensis secrete a proteolytic enzyme that is thought to be essential for both larval penetration into the intestinal wall of the host and full development. Protease activity in these larvae during culture in vitro was determined by zymography, pH optimum, and substrate and inhibitor specificity. Excretory-secretory (ES) products of the thi...

Paraquat (PQ)-induced pulmonary toxicity is known to result in pulmonary edema, infiltration of inflammatory cells and damage to the alveolar epithelium, which may progress to severe fibrosis. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their physiological inhibitors, tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases (TIMPs), which degrade and remodel the excess extracellular matrix, are believed to play...

OBJECTIVE Kashin-Beck Disease (KBD) is an endemic, age-related degenerative osteoarthropathy and its cause is hypothesised to involve Fusarium mycotoxins. This study investigated the Fusarium mycotoxin Nivalenol (NIV) on the metabolism of bovine articular chondrocytes in vitro. DESIGN The effect 0.0-0.5 µg/ml NIV on transcript levels of types I and II collagen, aggrecan, matrix metalloprotein...

BACKGROUND Extended culture of monocytes and fibroblasts in three-dimensional collagen gels leads to degradation of the gels (see linked study in this issue, "Fibroblasts and monocytes contract and degrade three-dimensional collagen gels in extended co-culture"). The current study, therefore, was designed to evaluate production of matrix-degrading metalloproteinases by these cells in co-culture...

Hyaluronidase (HAase) was reported as a urinary marker of bladder cancer. In this study, a simple colorimetric gold nanoparticle (AuNP) assay was developed for rapid and sensitive detection of urinary HAase activity. Charge interaction between polyanionic hyaluronic acid (HA) and cationic AuNPs stabilized with cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) led to formation of gold aggregates and a red...

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of zinc-dependent endopeptidases, capable of degrading all the molecular components of extracellular matrix. MMPs have been shown to play critical roles in tumor cell invasion and metastasis. We verified the activity of MMPs in the sera and in the urine of patients with kidney carcinoma by gelatin zymo...

Cartilage and bone degradation, observed in human rheumatoid arthritis (RA), are caused by aberrant expression of proteinases, resulting in an imbalance of these degrading enzymes and their inhibitors. However, the role of the individual proteinases in the pathogenesis of degradation is not yet completely understood. Murine antigen-induced arthritis (AIA) is a well-established animal model of R...