Collectively, these findings suggest that heparanase blockade is highly effective in slowing atherosclerosis formation and progression, and decreasing liver steatosis.
Several studies suggest that upregulation of heparanase and its destruction of heparan sulfate proteoglycans may be responsible for many of the complications associated with diabetes particularly in the kidney and blood vessels leading to chronic kidney disease, atherosclerosis and acute coronary syndrome.
Since perlecan is expressed at low levels in human atherosclerosis, we speculated that the effect of heparan sulfate (HS) in human disease was rather influenced by HS degradation and investigated the expression of heparanase (HPSE) in human carotid endarterectomies.
Sections of aorta from mice over-expressing heparanase (hpa-Tg) and controls (C57/BL6) fed an atherogenic diet were examined for evidence of atherosclerosis.