Hepatocyte growth factor induces breast cancer cell invasion via the PI3K/Akt and p38 MAPK signaling pathways to up-regulate the expression of COX2.

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a multifunctional growth factor that plays important roles in promoting the invasion and metastasis of various tumor cells. However, there are few reports about the exact mechanisms of HGF involved in the regulation of cell invasion via the induction of COX2. In this study, we found that HGF could activate its receptor c-Met and up-regulate COX2 expression in a dose- and time-dependent manner, which resulted in an increase in MMP-9 expression and subsequent invasiveness of the breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7.