The role of MMP-2 and MMP-14 in cell migration and invasion

Abstract

Cancer is becoming a global epidemic in recent times and can affect different organs in the body and even more worrying is that they do not have a common cause. Several factors have been implicated in the onset and spread of cancers, one of which are the metalloproteinases (MMPs). The MMPs utilize the same strategy they employ in normal physiological processes in pathology, thus creating a dilemma in the development of cancer inhibitors. The MMP-2 and MMP-14 (aka MT1-MMP) proteins have been discovered to be present at the forefront of many cancers and can lead to poor prognosis in the patient, due to their ability to migrate to and invade across barriers, eventually leading to metastatic spread. This study was based on the overexpression of the intracellular variant of MMP-2 (MMP-2ic) and the knockdown of MMP-14 in HSC-3 cells and analyzing for their migratiive and invasive abilities. Although successful overexpression of the MMP-2ic clones was achieved, the knockdown of MMP-14 was not as conclusive and thus migrative and invasive study cannot be concluded upon.