Heparanase tailors syndecan for exosome production.

Summary

Exosomes are secreted vesicles involved in signaling processes. The biogenesis of a class of these vesicles depends on syntenin and syndecans. Heparanase acts as a regulator of the syndecan-syntenin-exosome biogenesis pathway. The upregulation of syntenin and heparanase in cancers may support the suspected roles of exosomes in tumor biology.