Decreased expression of fibronectin and MMP2 in lymph node metastases was further confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction assays performed on five additional specimen pairs.
These observations suggest that MT1-MMP possesses a role as a determinant of lymph node metastasis in HNSCC, and that concurrent expression of MT1-MMP and MMP-2 are involved in progression of HNSCC.
Quantitative RT-PCR for membrane-types 1, 2 and 3 MMPs (MT1, 2 and 3-MMPs), which activate proMMP-2 in vitro, demonstrated that MT1-MMP is predominantly expressed in the carcinoma tissues, and the expression level is significantly higher in the carcinomas with lymph node metastasis than in those without metastasis (P < 0.05) or the control samples (P < 0.05).