Fig.2.

Profiling of MMP expression and the impact of MMPs on the invasive potential of bladder cancer cells. (A) Gene expression of various MMPs was compared by qRT-PCR. UROtsa cells were characterized by a high expression of MMP1 and MMP2. HT1197 and T24/83 showed relatively high levels of TIMP1 and TIMP2 expression. (B) Gel zymographies were used to measure the activity of MMPs in supernatants (MMP9, MMP2, MMP1) and cell lysates (MMP7) of UCB cells. Supernatants of UROtsa cells contain highest levels of MMP9, MMP2 and MMP1. However, malignant cell lines secreted only minor amounts of the corresponding MMPs. Latent forms of MMP7 were detected in all cell lysates, whereas the active form of MMP7 was only found in HT1197 cells. (C) The broad spectrum MMP inhibitor AHA attenuates significantly the invasive potential of HT1197 but not of T24/83 cells 60 h after seeding of the UCB cells. ^*P < 0.05 t-test.