Observation on the influence of TNFα on the expression of matrix metalloproteinases in human hepatic stellate cells

Objective To investigate the changes of matrix metalloproteinases(MMPs) expression in human hepatic stellate cells after TNFα stimulation. Methods Human hepatic stellate cells were isolated, cultured and stimulated by TNFα. MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-3 in the supernatant were measured by ELISA at different time. Results MMP-1, MMP-2 and MMP-3 expressed by the stellate cells increased gradually after TNFα stimulation. The increase mostly began after a 20 hours of stimulation with TNF-α. MMP-1 levels at different time were 28h24h20h4-16h(P0.001) in order, levels of MMP-2 were 28h24h20h(P0.001)4-16h(P0.05) in order, MMP-3 levels were 28h24h(P0.01)20h4-16h(P0.05) in order. The average levels of MMP-1 and MMP-2 in TNFα group were already higher than controls after a 8 hours stimulation(P0.05), and was significantly higher than controls after a 20 hours stimulation (P0.01-0.001). However, the average level of MMP-3 didn't increase significantly not untill at 20h(P0.01). Conclusions Our data indicated that TNFα could stimulate the hepatic stellate cell to express MMP-1, MMP-2 and MMP-3 and the expression increased with different time of stimulation.