The Serum Level Of MMP-3 And The Expressions Of VEGF-C And MMP-3 In Gastric Cancer

Objective:To investigate the serum level of MMP-3 and the expressions of VEGF-C and MMP-3 in gastric cancer to study their role in the process of gastric cancer.Methods:First,we selected 50 cases of gastric cancer patients,34 cases of males,16 cases of females, that were operated in the department of general surgery in Qilu Hospital from October 2008 to April 2009.A11 Specimens were confirmed by pathology. And we collected tumor tissues and the gastric mucosa from 5 centimeters above the edge of carcinoma.All specimens underwent pathological examination by HE staining. None of them was done any pre-operative treatment for gastric cancer. And we selected 30 healthy people over the same period as the control group. Five milliliters of peripheral venous blood was collected in the morning after fasting. Clotting of blood samples were taken after the separation of serum fluid and rapidly stored in-80℃refrigerator spare. ELISA used to detect the preoperative, the postoperative and the normal group's serum levels of MMP-3.The immunohistochemical method was used to analyze the expression of VEGF-C and MMP-3 in 50 resected specimens.(tumor tissues and the normal control group).Results:The preoperative serum level of MMP-3(30.96±9.75ng/ml) was significantly higher than that of postoperative group(16.29±5.92ng/ml)and control group (14.43±4.82ng/ml)(P<0.05).The postoperative serum level of MMP-3 after one week and normal controls had no significant difference (P>0.05). The preoperative serum level of MMP-3 of patients whose neoplasms infiltrating meet or exceed the serosa layer was significantly higher than those below the serosa layer (32.60±10.05ng/ml vs 24.43±4.56ng/ml, P＜0.05)., The serum MMP-3 levels of patients with lymph node metastasis was significantly higher than those without lymph node metastasis (32.11±9.79ng/ml vs 22.55±3.41ng/ml, P＜0.05); And preoperative serum MMP-3 level was closely related with TNM stage(34.26±9.30ng/ml vs 25.10±7.71ng/ml, P＜0.05).But the preoperative serum level of MMP-3 in patients with gastric cancer had no significant correlation with sex, age, tumor size, location and degree of differentiation (P>0.05). In gastric cancer, MMP-3 mainly localizes in the cytoplasm of gastric cancer cells and (or) cell membrane, the positive rate was 68% (34/50 cases); but the adjacent normal tissues was seen weak positive staining;the positive rate was 20%(10/50 cases). The expression of MMP-3 of gastric cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues (P＜0.05). The positive expression of MMP-3 was closely related with TNM stage of gastric cancer, lymph node metastasis (P＜0.05);while had no significant correlation with sex, age, tumor size, location, differentiation and invasion depth (P>0.05). The preoperative serum level of MMP-3 showed consistency with expression of MMP-3 in gastric cancer(P＜0.05). In gastric cancer, VEGF-C mainly localizes in the cytoplasm of gastric cancer cells; the positive rate was 50% (25/50 cases);while the adjacent tissues was negative expression. The positive expression of VEGF-C was closely related with the degree of gastric cancer invasion and lymph node metastasis (P＜0.05),while had no significant correlation with sex, age, tumor size, location, degree of differentiation and TNM staging (P> 0.05). The expression of VEGF-C was positively correlated with that of MMP-3(rs=0.360, P＜0.05).Conclusion:VEGF-C and MMP-3 have an important role in tumor invasion and metastasis. The detection of preoperative and postoperative serum levels of MMP-3 may have important clinical significance in predicting invasion and metastasis of gastric cancer, also in determining prognosis of gastric cancer.