Heparanases: endoglycosidases that degrade heparan sulfate proteoglycans.

Heparanases are endoglycosidases that cleave the heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycans from proteoglycan core proteins and degrade them to small oligosaccharides. Inside cells, these enzymes are important for the normal catabolism of heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs), generating glycosaminoglycan fragments that are then transported to lysosomes and completely degraded. When secreted, heparanases are thought to degrade basement membrane HSPGs at sites of injury or inflammation, allowing extravasion of immune cells into nonvascular spaces and releasing factors that regulate cell proliferation and angiogenesis. Heparanases have been described in a wide variety of tissues and cells, but because of difficulties in developing simple assays to follow activity, very little has been known about enzyme diversity until recently. Within the last 10 years, heparanases have been purified from platelets, placenta, and Chinese hamster ovary cells. Characterization of the enzymes suggests there may be a family of heparanase proteins with different substrate specificities and potential functions.