Tissue and circulating immunoreactive protein for MMP-2 and TIMP-2 in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma--tissue immunoreactivity predicts aggressive clinical course.
In this study, we used immunohistochemical techniques to examine the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 in 10 actinic keratosis, 15 in situ, 13 invasive, 13 primary (with documented metastatic disease), 11 metastatic, and 8 recurrent squamous cell carcinoma cases.
Compared to other E-cadherin positive SCC cells, these cells showed higher invasive ability and expression of MMP-2, a matrix degrading enzyme which has been demonstrated to be highly expressed in invasive cancer cells.
This study was designed to investigate the expression of MMP-2, MMP-9 and TIMP-1, TIMP-2 in human squamous cell carcinomas of uterine cervix, and the association with invasion and metastasis of human squamous cell carcinoma of uterine cervix.