Plasmin, the major fibrinolytic enzyme in blood, also participates in a number of physiologic functions involving protein processing and tissue remodelling, and may play an important role in tumor invasion and metastasis.
In this study, we compared four markers [chromosome mode, marker chromosomes, and expression of the ABH "blood group" antigens and the Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen (using immunoperoxidase or lectin immunoperoxidase methods)] in 39 patients presenting initially with low-stage bladder carcinoma and followed 3 to 11 years or until deep muscle invasion occurred.
Also, newer methods of detecting recurrence and predicting invasion such as ABO(H) antigen testing, chromosome analysis, and flow cytometry are reviewed in an attempt to understand better the cellular and nuclear abnormalities in malignant transitional cells.
In advanced carcinomas, c-Ha-ras p21-immunoreactivity was correlated with the depth of tumor invasion and was stronger in metastatic tumors than in primary tumors.
In a series of immortalized human bronchial epithelial cell lines continuing various oncogenes, the transcriptional levels of the type IV collagenase and the type IV procollagen genes were compared with the properties of invasiveness in vitro and tumorigenicity and metastatic ability in athymic nude mice. v-Ha-ras greatly enhanced invasion and metastasis, whereas v-Ki-ras, c-myc, and c-raf had lesser effects on these malignant phenotypes.
More knowledge is needed about the influence of the erythrocyte cytoskeleton on invasion and growth of parasites as well as the potential role of phospholipids, erythrocyte enzymes other than G6PD, or other metabolic products.
The coordinated regulation of these proteins likely determines secreted PA activity and the resultant role of plasminogen activation in tumor implantation and invasion.
Higher SPF values were significantly correlated with aneuploidy (p less than 0.001), presence of necrosis (p less than 0.001), lack of estrogen receptor (p less than 0.0001), high nuclear grade (p less than 0.001), vascular invasion (p less than 0.003), tumor size (p less than 0.006), and high histologic grade (p less than .004) but not the presence of lymph node metastases (p greater than 0.56).
Furthermore, the intensity of the immunohistochemical staining for PSTI increased the more cases advanced, particularly in regard to depth of invasion and tumour size.
The PIP2 pathway seems to provide a link between oncogene-associated transformation, cellular proliferation, plasminogen-activator expression and tumour invasion and metastasis.
The synchronous expression of EGF and its receptor, as well as TGF alpha and ras p21, is evidently correlated with the depth of tumor invasion, metastasis and prognosis of gastric carcinomas.
These data suggest that for cultured colon cancer cells, at least, the display of receptor bound urokinase was a prerequisite for plasminogen dependent invasion.
Since the steady state level of LR mRNA has been shown to control the number of receptors expressed at the cell surface, these results suggest that contact of the cancer cells with laminin and fibronectin in the host matrix may be an important regulatory mechanism by which cancer cells maintain a high number of LR at their cell surface as they progress through the several steps of tumoral invasion and metastasis.