around the blood vessels (Figure 1K). Thus, ColIV deposited surrounding cancer nests and formed membrane-like structures in tumour tissue. However, membrane-like structure fragmented, collapsed or even completely disappeared in most cases (ColIV: iOD 151.92 ± 38.17, Figure 1I, Additional file 1: Figure S1 C). Complete membrane-like structure could be observed only in small cases, but it became thick and sparse (Figure 1L). Association between MMP-2, MMP-9 and ColIV expression and clinic-pathological this website characteristics of tongue cancer As shown in Table 2, tumour MMP-2 expression was only detected in 14 of 48 specimens (low expression in 57% and high expression in 43%).
However, for stromal MMP-2 expression, low positivity second was noted in 40% of cases, whereas 60% showed high positivity. The presence of tumour MMP-2 expression was associated with differentiation and clinical stage. However, high stromal MMP-2 expression was only associated with positive lymph node status (P < 0.01). Table 2 Relationship between MMP-2, MMP-9 and type IV collagen expression and clinic-pathological parameters in 48 patients with tongue carcinoma Variable MMP-2 MMP-9 Type IV collagen Stromal cells P Tumour cells P Stromal cells P Tumour cells P Low High P Low High Low High Low High Low High Gender Male 14 22 1.000 31 5 1.000 6 30 0.672 11 25 1.000 24 12 0.139 Female 5 7 11 1 3 9 4 8 11 1 Age <55 9 12 0.683 18 3 1.000 5 16 0.477 5 16 0.327 17 4 0.269 ≥55 10 17 24 3 4 23 10 17 18 9 Differentiation Advanced 11 13 0.2 24 0 0.022▲ 7 17 0.137 8 16 0.756 15 9 0.104 Medium/poor 8 16 18 6 2 22 7 17 20 4 Clinical stage I+II 12 15 0.435 21 6 0.029▲ 8 19 0.058 9 18 0.724 18 9 0.269 III+IV 7 14 21 0 1 20 6 15 17 4 T stage T1+T2 19 26 0.267 40 5 0.336 9 36 1.000 15 30 0.542 32 13 0.553 T3+T4 0 3 2 1 0 3 0 3 3 0 Recurrence No 15 18 0.217 28 5 0.650 6 27 1.000 12 21 0.328 22 11 0.182 Yes 4 11 14 1 3 12 3 12 13 2 Lymph node involvement No 10 1 <0.001★ 11 0 0.313 6 5 0.002★ 8 3 0.002★ 5 6 0.