Emerging regulatory mechanisms for fibrinolytic gene expression

Fibrinolytic genes are involved in many biological processes, such as fibrinolysis, wound healing, inflammation and tumor metastasis, some of which rely on non-catalytic properties of the gene products. Reflecting the broad biological functions, expression of these genes is controlled by several mechanisms. Since the identification of fibrinolytic genes 2 decades ago, a vast amount of information has accumulated about the many signals, signaling pathways and mechanisms inducing their transcription. Our knowledge in this field is still expanding, and in this article we discuss two further emerging mechanisms by which expression of these genes is regulated: cell cycle-mediation and mRNA stability.