Expressions and clinical significances of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 in cervical squamous cell carcinoma tissues

Objective:To explore the expressions of matrix metalloprpteinase-9(MMP-9) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1(TIMP-1) in cervical squamous cell carcinoma tissues,and the relationship between their levels and clinicopathological characteristics of cervical carcinoma.Methods:Immunohistochemical MaxvisioTM method was used to detect the expression levels of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 in 46 cases with cervical squamous cell carcinoma,34 cases with cervical carcinoma in situ(CIN Ⅲ) and 20 cases with normal cervical epithelium adjacent to carcinoma(NCE).The relationship between their expression levels and clinical stages,pathological types and lymph node metastasis or not were analyzed.Results:The positive expression rates of MMP-9 in cervical squamous cell carcinoma,cervical carcinoma in situ and NCE were 71.7%,70.6% and 25.0%,respectively;the positive expression rates of TIMP-1 in cervical squamous cell carcinoma,cervical carcinoma in situ and NCE were 54.3%,73.5% and 20.0%,respectively.There was significant difference in positive expression rates of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 among the three groups(P0.01).There was no correlation between positive expression rates of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 and clinical stages,pathological types(P0.05).The positive expression rate of MMP-9 in lymph node metastasis group was significantly higher than that in non-lymph node metastasis group(P0.01),but TIMP-1 did not correlate with lymph node metastasis.There was a negative correlation between MMP-9 expression and TIMP-1 expression in cervical squamous cell carcinoma(γs=-0.381,P0.01).Conclusion:The up-regulation of MMP-9 expression and down-regulation of TIMP-1 expression in cervical squamous cell carcinoma tissues play important roles in invasion and metastasis of cervical squamous cell carcinoma.