Journal of Clinical and Cellular Immunology
Open Access
ISSN: 2155-9899
+44 1223 790975
ISSN: 2155-9899
+44 1223 790975
Israel Vlodavsky
Cancer and Vascular Biology Research Center, Rappaport Faculty of Medicine,
Technion, P.O. Box 9649, Haifa 31096
Israel
Research Article
Involvement of Heparanase in Empyema: Implication for Novel Therapeutic Approaches
Author(s): Moshe Lapidot, Uri Barash, Yaniv Zohar, Yuval Geffen, Inna Naroditsky, Neta Ilan, Lael Anson Best and Israel VlodavskyMoshe Lapidot, Uri Barash, Yaniv Zohar, Yuval Geffen, Inna Naroditsky, Neta Ilan, Lael Anson Best and Israel Vlodavsky
Pleural empyema is an inflammatory condition that progresses from acute to chronic, life-threatening, phase. The incidence of empyema has been increasing both in children and adults worldwide in the past decades, mainly in healthy young adults and in older patients. Despite continued advances in the management of this condition, morbidity and mortality have essentially remained static over the past decade. Better understanding of the disease and the development of new therapeutic approaches are thus critically needed. Heparanase is an endoglucuronidase that cleaves heparan sulfate chains of proteoglycans. These macromolecules are most abounded in the sub-endothelial and sub-epithelial basement membranes and their cleavage by heparanase leads to disassembly of the extracellular matrix that becomes more susceptible to extravasation and dissemination of metastatic and immune cells. Here,.. View More»
DOI:
10.4172/2155-9899.1000290