Expression and Clinical Significance of Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 and Its Inhibitor TIMP-2 in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the most common malignant tumour in the head and neck area, and is considered as the top oral carcinoma. A large number of studies have determined that many matrix matalloprpteinases (MMPS), especially MMP-2 and MMP-9 are eminent, correlative with Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC)'s invasion and metastasis. However, the research on the expression of MMP-2 and its inhibitor (TIMP-2) in oral squamous cell carcinoma is very rare. Here we examine the expression pattern of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 in 10 normal oral mucosa, 10 dysplastic oral mucosa and 30 oral squamous cell cancer tissues, using immunohistochemical method in order to investigate the correlativity and the effect to the biological behaviour of Oral Squamous Cell Cancer. We found that the difference of MMP-2 expression in oral squamous cell cancer tissues, and dysplastic oral tissues versus normal oral tissues was statistically significant. There is a close correlation between the MMP-2 expression level and the carcinoma differentiation, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, and distant metastasis. The expression of TIMP-2 in oral squamous cancer was higher than in normal oral mucosa but lower than in dysplastic mucosa. The difference of the expression of TIMP-2 in positive and negative lymphnode metastasis was significant. There is an inverse correlation between the MMP- 2 expression and the TIMP-2 expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma tissues (r=3.89 p<0.01). In the process of invasion and metastasis of OSCC, imbalance between MMP-2 and TIMP-2 expression plays an important role. Detecting MMP-2 and TIMP-2 protein expression may be considered as markers for estimating the biological behavior of carcinoma and evaluating the prognosis of patients.