The heparanase-1 (HPSE1) functional role in the oral cancer angiogenesis

Abstract

The oral cancer represents an important public health problem in Brazil and worldwide, both due to the increasing number of cases observed, as well as for representing an important cause of morbidity and mortality. The oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most prevalent form of oral cancer; despite the advances and last recent discoveries, the prognosis of this disease is still unpredictable. The oral carcinogenesis is a complex process combining several molecular events. The formation of metastases depends mainly on the ability of tumor cells to invade the basement membrane in a process involving enzymes capable of degraded components of the extracellular matrix (ECM). The heparanase 1 (HPSE1) enzyme is an endoglycosidase that cleaves polymeric heparan sulfate (HS) molecules, which is one of the main elements of the ECM. The activity of the enzyme HPSE1 has been correlated with the metastatic potential of tumor cells, attributed to the increasing of cellular dissemination as a result of ECM remodeling. Considering the role of HPSE1 in tumor invasion and metastasis, and few studies evaluating this marker in oral cancer, the purpose of this study is to characterize the expression profile of HPSE1 in OSCC cell line, and to correlate its expression levels with functional role of this enzyme in the process of oral tumor angiogenesis.