PROTEASOME AND CALPAIN ACTIVITIES IN ENDOMETRIAL HYPERPLASIA AND ENDOMETRIAL CANCER

V.D. Koval, L.V. Spirina, I.V. Kondakova, L.A. Kolomiets, O.V. Shpileva
Cancer Research Institute of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Tomsk, Russia

In present study, we investigated the proteasome and calpain activities in patients with endometrial hyperplasia (EH) and endometrial cancer (EC), as well as proteasome subunit composition in EC tissue. EC development was shown to be associated with increased intracellular proteolysis and was accompanied by changes in proteasome subunit composition with predominance of the immune subunits. In EC tissue the total proteasome activity and the 26S proteasome pool activity were higher and calpain activity increased greatly if compared with EH. Changes in proteasome and calpain activities during EC development are similar in nature and are likely to be interrelated.
Keywords: 
endometrial cancer, endometrial hyperplasia, chymotrypsin-like proteasome activity, calpain activity