study of correlation between prostate specific antigen and matrix metalloproteinase-2 activity in benign and malignant prostate hyperplasia

there are emerging data on novel tumor markers such as matrix metalloproteinase-2 (mmp-2 or gelatinase-a), which play a key role in tissue invasion and metastasis. we designed an investigation to assess the usefulness of mmp-2 activity as compared to prostate specific antigen (psa) in cancer staging process. we have analyzed the circulating form of mmp-2 in serum samples of patients suffering from either benign prostate hyperplasia (bph, n = 54) or prostate cancer (pc, n = 26), and prostatitis (n = 4) as compared to control normal individual (n = 26), respectively. protein-content adjusted samples were separated by gelatin-embedded polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis then were subjected to densitometric analysis. total psa (tpsa) and free psa (fpsa) were quantified using a standard elisa technique. correlation coefficient (r) between tpsa and mmp-2 activity in patient group was +0.938 and in controls group was 0.799 ( p <0.01). in addition, (r) between tpsa and mmp-2 activity in pc patients was 0.940 and in bph patients was 0.962 ( p <0.01). (r) between fpsa and mmp2 activity in pc patients was 0.913, in bph patients was 0.644, and in prostatitis patients was -0.994 (p <0.01). these results demonstrate that mmp-2, compared to psa, might be considered as a better tumor marker in monitoring and screening patients with pc.