Disease relevance of MMP21

• MMP-21 protein can also be detected in malignancies such as ovarian and colon carcinomas by immunohistochemical staining [1].
• CONCLUSION: The MMP-21 gene 572C/T polymorphism has no significant effect on the development and progression of breast cancer [2].
• MMP-21 is upregulated at early stages of melanoma progression but disappears with more aggressive phenotype [3].
• MMP-21 was not found in sentinel nodes with metastases, while MMP-13 was seen in all of them [3].
• Expression of MMP-21 was detected by immunohistochemistry in a subset of macrophages of granulomatous skin lesions and in fibroblasts in dermatofibromas [4].

High impact information on MMP21

• We have characterized a novel human matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-21) from human placenta DNA complementary to RNA (cDNA) [1].
• By reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, MMP-21 is expressed in various human fetal and adult tissues as well as in cancer cell lines [1].
• As in Xenopus laevis and Cynops pyrrhogaster there is an additional insertion of approximately 30 amino acids between the prodomain and the catalytic domain, which is poorly conserved between the species and is in human MMP-21 especially proline rich [1].
• Our findings suggest that MMP-21 functions in embryogenesis and tumor progression [1].
• Furthermore, MMP-21 has a furin activation sequence, but no transmembrane sequence nor a cytoplasmic domain [1].

Biological context of MMP21

• The MMP-21 gene has seven exons and is located in chromosome 10 [1].

Anatomical context of MMP21

• Our results suggest that expression of MMP-21 may serve as a marker of malignant transformation of melanocytes and does not associate with the presence of micrometastases [3].
• MMP-21 is expressed by macrophages and fibroblasts in vivo and in culture [4].
• In culture MMP-21 was upregulated by phorbol myristate acetate in THP-1 cells and by retinoic acid (RA) in U937 cells, and downregulated by transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta1) in HEL 299 as assessed by Taqman quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) [4].

Other interactions of MMP21

• We examined the profile of three recently cloned MMPs, MMP-21, MMP-26, and MMP-28, in melanomas in vivo and in culture [3].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of MMP21

• MMP-21 messenger RNA was variably expressed in all five melanoma cell lines investigated using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction [3].
• Furthermore, MMP-21 protein was detected by immunohistochemistry in cultures of the same cell lines [4].

References