Expression And Clinical Significance Of Matrix Metalloproteinases And Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor In Colorectal Cancers

Objectives: To investigate the clinical significance of matrix metallopro- teinases (MMPs), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in human colorectal cancers. Methods: The 40 cases of primary colorectal cancer tissue and adjacent nontumoral colorectal tissue were analysed for MMP-2, MMP-7, TIMP-1 and VEGF by immunohistochemistry. The activity of MMP-2 was detected by Casein Zymography in 8 cases of the primary colorectal cancers. The clinicopathological data of all the patients were respectively analysed.Results: The level of MMP-2, MMP-7, TIMP-1 and VEGF was higher in colorectal cancer tissue than in normal colorectal mucous membrane. The expression of TIMP-1 had an association with the depth of infiltration(P<0.05). The positive expression rates of MMP-2, MMP-7, TIMP-1 and VEGF were higher in the group with lymph node metastasis(separate 95.45﹪,100﹪,81.82﹪,100﹪) than in the group without lymph node metastasis (separate 77.77﹪,88.9﹪,44.45﹪,77.78﹪) , and the significant differences were only in MMP-2,TIMP-1 and VEGF between the two groups(P<0.05,P<0.05,P<0.01). The expression level of MMP-7 , VEGF in Dukes C+Dukes D was significantly higher than in Dukes A+Dukes B(P<0.05, P<0.05). The expression of MMP-7 correlated with VEGF and TIMP-1 (P=0.0015, P<0.05). The positive expression of MMP-2+MMP-7+TIMP-1+VEGF was significantly higher in the group with lymph node metastasis than in the group without lymph node metastasis (P<0.01), and was significantly higher in Dukes C+Dukes D than in Dukes A+Dukes B(P<0.05). The activity of MMP-2 was significantly higher in tumor tissue than in normal tissue in 8 cases(P <0.0001).Conclusions: The study suggested that the detection of MMP-2, MMP-7, TIMP-1 and VEGF might help guide the follow-up and the therapy of the patients after the operation of colorectal cancer.