The contribution of MT4-MMP to tumor development has been further investigated in gastric cancer, colon cancer, head and neck cancer, and more deeply in breast cancer.
The mechanisms by which MT4-MMP participates in breast cancer includes tumor blood vessels desestabilization, the activation of an angiogenic switch, and increase of EGFR signaling.
Active MT4-MMP triggered an angiogenic switch at day 7 after tumor implantation and drastically accelerated subcutaneous tumor growth as well as lung colonization in recombination activating gene-1-deficient mice.
We provide for the first time evidence that MT4-MMP overproduction accelerates in vivo tumor growth, induces enlargement of i.t. blood vessels, and is associated with increased lung metastases.
After exposure to the compound, the modulated genes were involved in inflammatory responses as with the mitogen-activated protein kinase 14 (MPK 14), or in tumor and metastasis progression as with the matrix metalloproteinase 17 (MMP 17), in cell proliferation as with c-jun and c-fos, and moreover in the apoptotic process as with interferon alpha-inducible protein (IFI), BAX and BCL-2.