Fig. 1.
Panel a Representative gelatin zymography of serum (lanes 1–6), purified gelatinases, and Western blotting. Molecular weight are shown on the left. Lane 1 healthy subject, lane 2 glioblastoma multiforme (patient 11); lane 3 oligodendroglioma (patient 5), lane 4 intracranial metastasis from melanoma (patient 57), lane 5 low-grade meningioma (patient 25), lane 6 high-grade meningioma (patient 43), lane 7 purified gelatinase B (MMP-9, 92 kDa) 20 µU, lane 8 purified gelatinase A (MMP-2, 72 kDa) 120 mU, lane 9 Western blotting of MMP-9 (92 kDa); lane 10: Western blotting of MMP-2 (72 kDa). Panel b Box plot showing the distribution of multimeric form (240 kDa) and monomeric form (92 kDa) of serum MMP-9 in healthy controls, low-grade meningioma (grade I), high-grade meningioma (grade II), high-grade glioma (GB) and intracranial metastases. Value of integrated density are expressed as volume ×10−3. Data are shown as median (horizontal line in the box), Q1 and Q3 (border of the box) and min and max (whiskers outside the box). Dot represent outliers values (i.e., data points below Q1 −1.5 × IQR or above Q3 +1.5 × IQR). Q1 = 25th percentile; Q3 = 75th percentile; IQR (interquartile range) = Q3–Q1. Panel c Immunohistochemestry against MMP-9 in gliomas; (a) grade II glioma (oligodendroglioma): diffuse cytoplasmic and nuclear immunoreactivity in neoplastic cells (400× magnification); (b) grade III glioma (anaplastic oligodendroglioma): strong cytoplasmic signal inside tumor cells (400× magnification); (c) grade IV glioma (glioblastoma): heavy immunoreactivity in neoplastic endothelial cells lying at the interface of tumor-cerebral parenchyma (200× magnification); (d) grade IV glioma (glioblastoma): deep immunoreactivity in neoplastic vessel endothelial cells and occasional cytoplasmic signal within the tumor (400× magnification). Panel d Immunohistochemestry against MMP-9 in meningiomas (400× magnification) and box plot showing MMP-9 staining percentage in low- and high-grade meningiomas. (a) grade I meningioma: cytoplasmic immunoreaction in less than 10 % of neoplastic cells (b) grade II meningioma: cytoplasmic immunoreaction in 10–30 % of neoplastic cells (c) grade II meningioma: cytoplasmic immunoreaction in more than 30 % of neoplastic cells