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Proprotein convertases mediate the production of a variety of peptidic mitogens by limited proteolysis of their precursors. These proteases may also participate in the autocrine production of such mitogens by cancer cells and thus contribute to the unchecked proliferation of these cells. As a step towards defining this contribution, we have examined the levels of four convertase mRNAs in human lung neoplasms using semiquantitative Northern blot analysis. Furin mRNA was expressed in all the tumours; its level in squamous cell carcinomas and adenocarcinomas was on average about threefold higher than in small-cell lung carcinomas (SCLCs). PACE4 transcripts were detected in eight of 14 adenocarcinomas and in seven of 17 squamous cell carcinomas; they were detectable in only two of seven SCLCs. PC1 mRNA was undetected in squamous cell carcinomas and in all but two adenocarcinomas; it was present in four of six SCLCs. PC2 mRNA was found in two adenocarcinomas, in one squamous cell carcinoma and in five of seven SCLCs. This preliminary survey indicates that SCLCs often carry more mRNA for the endocrine convertases PC1 and PC2 and less mRNA for the more ubiquitous furin and PACE4, suggesting inverse roles of these convertases in the development of this neoplasm.