Journal of Clinical and Cellular Immunology
Open Access

Moshe Lapidot

Publications

• 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 Vlodavsky Moshe 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

  Abstract PDF

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