Expression And Significance Of Cathepsin D And MMP-9 In Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Objectives: To investigate the significance and correlation of the expression of cathepsin D (CD) and matrix metalloproteinase-9(MMP-9) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).Methods: The expression of CD and MMP-9 were determined with S-P immunohistoche-mical method in 16 patients with primary OSCC and 20 with normal oral mucosa, and the relationships between the results and the clinicopathological features of the patients were assessed .Results: The positive expression rates of CD (81.6%) and MMP-9 (77.6%) in OSCC were significantly higher than those in normal oral mucosa (P<0.01) . The positive expression of CD and MMP-9 in cancer cells were correlated with the tumor invasive depth and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05),the positive expression of MMP-9 was related to histologic grade (P<0.05).There was positive correlation between the expression of CD and MMP-9 .Conclusions: The expression of CD and MMP-9 in cancer cells are closely related to the tumor invasion and metastasis of OSCC, which suggest that they may be useful prognostic marker for OSCC and make it possible to provide new target for therapy.