Cartilage is an interesting tissue in that it is avascular and relatively tumor-resistant. Sharks may be a potential source of cartilage because, unlike mammals, sharks have an endo-skeleton composed entirely of cartilage. In this study, firstly it was demonstrated that the car-tilage extract of tiger shark, Scylliorhinus torazame has the antiangiogenic activity by using chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay. Secondly, the MMP inhibitory activity was iden-tified in reverse zymogram assay at 42 kDa position. Therefore, since several MMP inhibitors were known to be responsible for angiogenesis inhibitory activity, this inhibitor protein may take a role on the antiangiogenic activity of shark cartilage extract. Lastly, the presence of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and Plasminogen activator (PA) which have a maier role for extracellular matrix (ECM ) degradation, in the shark cartilage and flesh tissue were deter-mined by using zymogram assay. Especially, a 61 kDa gelatinolytic enzyme regarded as MMP was identified in gelatin zymogram assay. In the case of plasminogen/gelatin zymogram assay, Plasminogen activator was not detected with shark cartilage extract but found in shark flesh tissue extract. Comparing with cartilage and flesh tissue of shark, the former showed less pro-teolytic activity than the latter which might be associated with avascularity of cartilage.

Keywords: Angiogenesis, Cartilage, MMP, MMP Inhibitor, Shark