Expression and significance of matrix metallproteinase-25 in gastric carcinoma

Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of matrix metallproteinase-25 (MMP-25) in gastric carcinoma.Methods The expression of MMP-25 in 40 cases of normal gastric tissue,40 cases of atrophic gastritis and and 40 cases of gastric carcinoma was detected by using immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) separately.Results The expression rate of MMP-25 protein in gastric carcinoma and atrophic gastritis was significantly higher than in the normal gastric tissues (95.0％ and 82.5％ vs.22.5％,P＜0.05),and that of MMP-25 mRNA showed the same trend as the former (0.328 ± 0.005 and 0.175 ± 0.002 vs.0.103 ± 0.004,P ＜0.05).The expression of MMP-25 was significantly correlated with the clinicopathologieal factors such as depth of invasion,lymph node metastasis and tumor sizes (P ＜ 0.05),but not with age,gender,clinical stage and differentiation (P ＞0.05).Conclusion The MMP-25 is expressed distinctly in gastric carcinoma.MMP-25 may be involved in tumorigenesis and metastasis of gastric carcinoma,and expected to be an important biomarker for gastric carcinoma,which could provide clues for clinical diagnosis of gastric carcinoma. Key words: Matrix metallproteinase-25 ;  Gastric carcinoma;  Metastasis