The Relation with Invasion and Metastasis in Cervical Carcinoma of c-Met and Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase2

Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of c-met protein and tissue inhibitor of metallopreteinase-2(TIMP-2) in cervical carcinoma.Methods The expression of c-met and TIMP-2 were detected by SP immunohistochemistry method in 40 cervical carcinoma tissues 13 cervical intraepithelial neoplasm(CIN) tissues and 15 normal cervical epithelium and cervicitis tissues. Significant differences were analyzed by rank-sum test.Results The positive expression of c-met increased remarkably from normal tissue to CIN and then to cervical carcinoma. The expression of c-met was positively correlated with clinical stage and lymph node metastasis. In CIN tissue, the positive expression of TIMP2 was much higher than those of normal cervical epithelium and cervicitis tissues. The expression of TIMP2 decreased significantly with clinical stage and lymph node metastasis. while both had no relevant to pathologic grade.Conclusion Overexpression of c-met facilitates the malignant progress of cervical carcinoma. The TIMP expression may be an early event in malignant transformation of cervical squamous cells. The c-met and TIMP expressions might be useful factors of patients with cervical carcinoma.