A study on the expression of MMP-9mRNA in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Objective To explore whether there are differences of MMP-9mRNA expression exist between cancer tissues and the matched adjacent normal tissues among patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Methods The reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR)was adopted to detect the expressions of MMP-9mRNA in 100cases of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissues and the matched adjacent normal tissues.Results The positive expression rate of MMP-9mRNA in carcinoma tissues was 48.0%(48/100)and its positive expression rate in the matched adjacent normal tissues was 16.0%(16/ 100),in which the analyzed statistical difference was of statistical significance(χ2=23.529,P =0.000);There was a correlation between the positive expression of MMP-9mRNA and the depth of tumor infiltration(χ2=4.488,P =0.034),but no correlation existed among the lymph node metastasis(χ2=0.617,P =0.432),the sex of patients(χ2=2.519,P =0.113),the age of patients(χ2=3.107,P =0.078)and the differentiation of tumor(χ2=2.091,P =0.148).Conclusion MMP-9may play a very important role in carcinogenesis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and it′s development on infiltration,but it has no effect on the lymph node metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.