[Type I, type III, and type IV collagenolytic enzyme activity in lung cancer tissue]

To investigate the changes of collagen metabolism in patients with lung cancer, activities of types I, III, and IV collagenolytic enzymes in specimens obtained from lung cancer tissue and pathomorphological changes of the corresponding specimens were analyzed. And the comparison of the biochemical and morphological changes were evaluated. Nine resected pulmonary carcinomas were used and 5 samples were obtained from each carcinoma tissue. In each sample, types I, III, and IV enzyme activities were measured and its histopathological examination was done. Enzyme activities of 5 samples from the same carcinoma tissue were considerably different in all subtype of collagenolytic enzymes. The relationship between each collagenolytic enzyme activity of these samples and their histopathological findings are as follows: 1) No relationship is found between the amount of carcinoma cells in cancer tissue and enzyme activity in any subtype, 2) increase in the fibrosis in cancer tissue is accompanied by decrease in type I collagenolytic enzyme activity, 3) the substantial increase in inflammatory cells coexisting with carcinoma is accompanied by increase in types I and III collagenolytic enzyme activities. Moreover, type III collagenolytic enzyme activity elevates significantly when inflammatory cells infiltrate among carcinoma cells.