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. 2021 Mar 26;22(7):3403. doi: 10.3390/ijms22073403

Figure 4.

Figure 4

(a) Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), mediated by MMP-3, MMP-9, and MT1-MMP, promotes tumor cell detachment from the primary tumor, resulting in diffusion of cancer cells into the peritoneal cavity [44,52], where they (b) adhere to the mesothelial monolayer via binding of CA125 on the cancer cell by mesothelin on the mesothelial cell [57]. MMP-9 and MMP-2 are secreted by the cancer cell to cleave fibronectin produced by the mesothelial cell [24]. CA125 is cleaved by MT1-MMP to allow for integrin-mediated adhesion to the fibronectin fragments on the mesothelial cell and to induce mesothelial cell retraction [57]. (c) The basement membrane is degraded by MMPs and plasmin and the sub-mesothelial collagen matrix is remodeled by MT1-MMP [72,74]. (d) VEGF-mediated angiogenesis is promoted by MT1-MMP, MMP-9, and MMP-2 [83,85,86].