Paradoxically, not only proteinases but also their inhibitors can correlate with bad prognosis of cancer patients. Elevated TIMP-1 levels lead to fatal tumour cell scattering throughout the liver. Here, it was investigated whether uPA mediated this TIMP-1-induced modulation of a pro-metastatic microenvironment. Indeed, in livers of uPA-ablated mice elevated TIMP-1 levels did neither trigger HGF-signalling nor promote metastasis of a murine lymphoma. In contrast, lack of tumour cell-uPA did not interfere with this pro-metastatic pathway. Furthermore, host-uPA was necessary for the recruitment of neutrophils and the associated increase of HGF in livers with elevated TIMP-1 levels. The co-operation between TIMP-1 and host-uPA suggests that therapies simultaneously interfering with pro- and anti-proteolytic pathways may be beneficial for cancer patients.
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Paradoxically, not only proteinases but also their inhibitors can correlate with bad prognosis of cancer patients. Elevated TIMP-1 levels lead to fatal tumour cell scattering throughout the liver. Here, it was investigated whether uPA mediated this TIMP-1-induced modulation of a pro-metastatic microenvironment. Indeed, in livers of uPA-ablated mice elevated TIMP-1 levels did neither trigger HGF-signalling nor promote metastasis of a murine lymphoma. In contrast, lack of tumour cell-uPA did not i...
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