Correlated expression profile of extracellular matrix-related molecules during the inflammatory response of the teleost fish gilthead seabream.

Extracellular matrix (ECM) components, in addition to their structural functions, interact with cell surface receptors and intracellular components to modulate the transduction of signals for cell growth, differentiation, migration, proliferation, polarization, apoptosis and inflammation. Our previous findings in the gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.), a marine seasonal hermaphrodite teleost fish, have shown that both endocrine and immune stimuli modulate the expression of matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitors of MMP (TIMPs).