A novel trypsin-like protease was purified to homogeneity from the sputum of patients with chronic airway diseases, by sequential chromatographic procedures. The enzyme migrated on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to a position corresponding to a molecular weight of 28 kDa under both reducing and non-reducing conditions, and showed an apparent molecular weight of 27 kDa by gel filtration, indicating that it exists as a monomer. It had an NH2-terminal sequence of Ile-Leu-Gly-Gly-Thr-Glu-Ala-Glu-Glu-Gly-Ser-Trp-Pro-Trp-Gln-Val-Ser-Leu- Arg-Leu, which differed from that of any known protease. Studies with model peptide substrates showed that the enzyme preferentially cleaves the COOH-terminal side of arginine residues at the P1 position of certain peptides, cleaving Boc-Phe-Ser-Arg-4-methylcoumaryl-7-amide most efficiently and having an optimum pH of 8.6 with this substrate. The enzyme was strongly inhibited by diisopropyl fluorophosphate, leupeptin, antipain, aprotinin, and soybean trypsin inhibitor, but hardly inhibited by secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor at 10 microM. An immunohistochemical study indicated that the enzyme is located in the cells of the submucosal serous glands of the bronchi and trachea. These results suggest that the enzyme is secreted from submucosal serous glands onto the mucous membrane in patients with chronic airway diseases.

PRF and PRP are autologous, safe, and cost-effective sources of growth factors. Therefore, we propose a new application of PRF and PRP for autologous transplantation in meniscus repair surgery.

Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is a catalytic subunit of human telomerase and is a critical determinant of the enzymatic activity of telomerase. Expression of hTERT is known to be regulated mainly at the transcriptional level. In the present study, using transient expression assays, we identified a 400 bp silencer of the hTERT promoter between -776 and -378 upstream of the proximal core promoter. The inhibitory effects of this silencer were enhanced with cellular differentiation. A computer-assisted homology search identified multiple binding motifs for myeloid-specific zinc finger protein 2 (MZF-2) within this region. Mutation introduced in these sites resulted in significant activation of hTERT transcription. Gel shift assays demonstrated that MZF-2 proteins specifically bound to these sites. Overexpression of MZF-2 in cells led to down-regulation of hTERT transcription as well as telomerase activity. These findings suggest that the 400 bp region upstream of the hTERT core promoter that we identified functions as a negative regulatory region and that MZF-2 may be an effector of negative regulation of hTERT.

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