Expression and clinical significance of matrix metalloproteinase-17 and -25 in gastric cancer

The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression and clinicopathological features of matrix metalloproteinase 17 (MMP17; also known as MT4-MMP) and MMP25 (also known as MT6-MMP) in gastric cancer. Immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction were used to detect the expression of MMP17 and MMP25 in 42 cases of gastric carcinoma and normal tissues, and 40 cases of atrophic gastritis. The expression of MMP17 in the normal gastric and atrophic gastritis tissues was significantly lower than that in the gastric cancer tissues (P<0.05). The expression of MMP25 in the gastric cancer and atrophic gastritis tissues was markedly higher compared with the normal gastric tissues (P<0.05). The expression of MMP17 and MMP25 was significantly associated with the depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis and serous membrane involvement (P<0.05), but not with patient age and gender, or lesion length, site and histological grade (P>0.05). Therefore, this indicates that the expression of MMP17 and MMP25 is increased with the degree of progress of gastric carcinoma. The detection of MMP17 and MMP25 expression may have clinical value in predicting the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer.