Differential patterns of stromelysin-2 (MMP-10) and MT1-MMP (MMP-14) expression in epithelial skin cancers

Co-expression of several members of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) fami ly is characteristic of human malignant rumours. To investigate the role of stromelysin-2 (MMP-10) in growth and invasion of skin tumours, we studied cutaneous carcinomas with high metastatic capacity (squamous cell carcinoma s, SCCs), only locally destructive tumours (basal cell carcinomas. BCCs) an d pre-malignant lesions (Bowen's disease and actinic keratosis) using in si tu hybridization. Expression of MMP-10 was compared with that of stromelysi n-1 (MMP-3) and of MT1-MMP, the expression of which has been shown to corre late with tumour invasiveness. MMP-10 was expressed in 13/21 SSCs and 11/19 BCCs only in epithelial laminin-5 positive cancer cells, while premalignan t lesions were entirely negative. MT1-MMP mRNA was detected in 19/21 SCCs b oth in epithelial cancer cells and stromal fibroblasts and in 14/18 BCCs on ly in fibroblasts. The level of MMP-10 was upregulated in a cutaneous SCC c ell line (UT-SCC-7) by transforming growth factor-alpha and keratinocyte gr owth factor, and by interferon-gamma in combination with transforming growt h factor-beta1 and tumour necrosis factor-alpha both in UT-SCC-7 and HaCaT cells. Our results show that MMP-10 expression does not correlate with the invasive behaviour of tumours as assessed by their histology and MT1-MMP ex pression, but may be induced by the wound healing and inflammatory matrix r emodelling events associated with skin tumours, (C) 2001 Cancer Research Ca mpaign.