Inhibitory effect of chitooligosaccharides on matrix metalloproteinase-9 in human fibrosarcoma cells (HT1080).

摘要

Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) has gelatinase activity and plays an important role in cancer invasion and metastasis. Therefore, inhibition of specific types of MMP including MMP-9 has become an attractive target for therapeutic intervention. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of chitooligosaccharides (COS) on activity and expression of MMP-9 in HT1080 cells. The inhibitory effect of COS with different molecular masses was examined by gelatin zymography, reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR), gene reporter assay and Western blot analysis. MMP-9 inhibition in the presence of COS was clearly observed in gelatin zymography. Specifically, 1-3 kDa COS (COS-I) exhibited the highest inhibitory effect on MMP-9 activity in HT1080 cells among tested molecular mass fractions. It was also found that COS-I was capable of inhibiting both gene and protein expression of MMP-9 (P < 0.01). These results suggest that low molecular mass COS can be considered as a potent inhibitor of MMP-9.