Figure 4
MMP-8 ablation perturbs the tumor protease web at the RNA level. (A) qRT-PCR profiling of MMP and TIMP RNA expression at 14 weeks of age with expression levels classified as very high (CT <25), high (CT = 26 to 30), moderate (CT = 31 to 35), low (CT = 36 to 39) or not detected (CT = 39 to 40). (B) MMPs and TIMPs with a significant change in expression in PyMT knockout (KO) or heterozygote (HET) mice compared to wild-type (WT) littermates at 14 weeks of age. Genes with significant 50% up- (FC +1.5) or down-regulated (FC −2.0) expression in null mice compared to wild-type littermates are highlighted in grey. FC, fold change. (C) RNA time course of selected MMPs and TIMPs (highlighted in grey in Figure 4B). Expression data was normalized to 18S rRNA, throughout disease progression (6 to 14 weeks of age) and expressed as arbitrary units. MMP, matrix metalloproteinase; PyMT, Polyoma virus middle T-antigen; qRT-PCR, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction; TIMP, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases.