The expression and clinical significance of MMP-9 in hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective To study the expression of MMP-9 in epatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the relationship between its expression and clinical pathological characteristics.Methods Specimens taken from 67 fresh resected HCC and 16 normal liver tissues were selected.Tissue sections were stained by EnVisionTM immunohistochemistry with anti-MMP-9 monoclonal antibodies.The expression of MMP-9 in HCC and the relationship between its expression and clinical pathological characteristics were analyzed with x2test,t test and rank-sum test.Results The positive ratio of MMP-9 in HCC tissues was 58.21％,it was obviously higher than that of normal liver tissues (12.5％,x2 =10.80,P ＜ 0.01).The expression of MMP-9 in the metastatic HCC tissues was significantly higher than that in the non-metastatic HCC tissues (40.18 vs 26.38,P ＜0.01).Conclusions The positive ratio of MMP-9 expression revealed that the expression of MMP-9 increased obviously in the HCC,and that its expression in the metastatic HCC tissues significantly increased relative to the non-metastatic tissues.It suggests that MMP-9 might decompose and destroy the extracellular matrix and cell membrane around HCC cell surface,and then promote invasion and metastasis of HCC. Key words: Matrix metalloproteinase 9/analysis ;  Carcinoma, hepatocellular/metabolism;  Carcinoma, hepatocellular/pathology