The present study aimed to investigate the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) and the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-3 (TIMP-3) in gastric cancer tissue, as well as to analyze the correlation between their expression and the occurrence of gastric cancer. Immunohistochemistry was used to determine the expression of MMP-3 and TIMP-3 in the gastric cancer tissue from 18 patients with early-stage gastric cancer (early-stage group) and 26 patients with advanced-stage gastric cancer (advanced-stage group). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to observe the lymphocytes and tumor cells in gastric cancer tissue. The results showed that the expression of TIMP-3 was significantly higher, whereas that of MMP-3 and MMP-3/TIMP-3 was lower in gastric cancer tissue of the early-stage group than in that of the advanced-stage group (P<0.05). The TEM images revealed increased lymphocytes and inconspicuous tumor cells penetrating the basement membrane in gastric cancer tissue of the early-stage group, and decreased lymphocytes and obvious tumor cells penetrating the basement membrane in the advanced-stage group. In conclusion, MMP-3 and TIMP-3 may be used as indices for the invasion and metastasis of gastric cancer and possess marked clinical significance in the prognostic judgment of gastric cancer.
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Liu et al. (2011) studied this question.
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