Curcumin (CM) possesses anti-cancer activity against a variety of tumors. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs)play an important role in remodeling the extracellular matrix and their activities are regulated by tissue inhibitorof metalloproteinases (TIMPs) family. Control of MMP and TIMP activity are now of great significance. In thisstudy, the effect of CM is investigated on metastatic MMPs and anti-metastatic TIMPs genes on MDA breastcancer cells cultured in a mixture of DMEM and Ham’s F12 medium and treated with different concentrationsof CM (10, 20 and 40μM for various lengths of time. Reverse transcription followed by quantitative real timePCR was used to detect the gene expression levels of MMPs and TIMPs in CM-treated versus untreated casesand the data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA. At high concentrations of curcumin, TIMP-1, -2, -3 and -4 geneswere up-regulated after 48 hours of treatment, their over-expression being accompanied by down-regulation ofMMP-2 and MMP-9 gene expression levels in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. These results suggestthat curcumin plays a role in regulating cell metastasis by inhibiting MMP-2 and MMP-9 and up-regulatingTIMP1 and TIMP4 gene expression in breast cancer cells.
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