Figure 6

Extracellular hsp90α assists in the conversion of plasminogen to plasmin. (a) HT-1080 fibrosarcoma cells were treated with either DMSO, plasminogen or plasinogen plus DMAG-N-oxide, a membrane impermeant inhibitor of hsp90α. Samples were added to a gelatin zymogram. A representative image taken from three independent experiments is shown. (b) Graphical representation of the plasminogen activation assay. Densitometry results are expressed as the percent decrease in plasmin activation (control set to 100%) and are from three independent experiments. Inhibition of extracellular hsp90α with DMAG-N-oxide results in a 32% decrease in plasmin activation (p < 0.02, two tailed t test).