To identify molecular therapeutic targets for glioma, we performed gene expression profiling by using a complementary DNA (cDNA) microarray method and identified the urokinase plasminogen activator receptor-associated protein (uPARAP/Endo180) as a gene expressed highly in glioma tissue compared with the normal brain tissue.
The fibrinolytic activities of conditioned medium and cell lysates from human glioma cell lines, A172, T98G, U87 and TM1 were studied by fibrin plate zymography. mRNA expression of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and plasminogen activator inhibitors (PAI-1, PAI-2) was measured by Northern blot analysis.
The activity of the serine protease plasminogen activator (PA), which correlates with tumorigenicity and metastatic capacity, was examined using the 125I-labeled fibrin plate assay in cell extracts from four human glioma lines as a function of growth in vitro.