“…PAI-1 can be synthesized and secreted by platelets (Erickson et al, 1985), vascular endothelial cells (Reilly and McFall, 1991), vascular smooth muscle cells (Reilly and McFall, 1991), and several nonvascular cell types (Busso et al, 1994). PAI-1 gene expression can be regulated by a variety of stimuli, including phorbol ester (Descheemaeker et al, 1992), transforming growth factor-b (Sawdey and Loskuto¡, 1991;Song et al, 1998), tumor necrosis factor-a (Sawdey and Los-kuto¡, 1991), interleukin-1 (Bevilacqua et al, 1986), lipopolysaccharide (Crutchley and Conanan, 1986;Sawdey and Loskuto¡, 1991), insulin, and insulin like growth factor-1 (Fattal et al, 1992;Ban¢ et al, 2001), platelet-derived growth factor (Reilly and McFall, 1991), and angiotensin II (Feener et al, 1995;Takeda et al, 2001). Recent studies reported an upregulation of PAI-1 gene expression induced by low oxygen tension (hypoxia) in trophoblast cells (Fitzpatrick and Graham, 1998), hepatocytes (Kietzmann et al, 1999), endothelial cells (Uchiyama et al, 2000), transformed murine macrophages (Pinsky et al, 1998), and some cancer cell lines (Fink et al, 2001).…”