Thromb Haemost 2008; 100(06): 1041-1046
DOI: 10.1160/TH08-04-0266
Theme Issue Article
Schattauer GmbH

Regulation of programmed cell death by plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1)

Ulrik A. Lademann
1   Department of Disease Biology, Section for Biomedicine, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C., Denmark
,
Maria Unni Rømer
1   Department of Disease Biology, Section for Biomedicine, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C., Denmark
› Author Affiliations

Financial support: This work was supported by grants from The IMK Foundation, Købmand I Odense Johann og Hanne Weimann, f. Seedorff Legat, the Danish Cancer Society, The A.P. Møller Foundation for the Advancement of Medical Science, The Danish Foundation for Cancer Research and The Danish Medical Research Council.
Further Information

Publication History

Received: 29 April 2008

Accepted after major revision: 09 November 2008

Publication Date:
23 November 2017 (online)

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Summary

Elevated levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) are associated with poor prognosis in cancer. An explanation to the elevated levels of PAI-1 could be a protective response to the increased proteolytic activity, caused by elevated levels of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) observed in tumours; however, several lines of evidence suggest that PAI-1 may contribute directly to the pathology of the disease. PAI-1 has been reported to have an effect on most of the basic cellular processes including cell adhesion, cell migration, cell invasion, and cell proliferation and increasing numbers of reports suggest that PAI-1 also can regulate programmed cell death (PCD) in cancer cells and normal cells.A number of reports suggest that PAI-1 can inhibit PCD through its pro-adhesive/anti-proteolytic property whereas other reports suggest that PAI-1 induces PCD through its anti-adhesive property.Furthermore,it has been suggested that PAI-1 can either induce or inhibit PCD though activation of cell signalling pathways.This review will focus on the regulation of programmed cell death by PAI-1 in both normal cells and cancer cells.