For example, in colon cancer cells, Xie et al. (2009) have shown that ACh induces proliferation involving MMP-1, MMP-7 and MMP-10, in turn, leading to EGFR activation, which can be abolished with the muscarinic inhibitor atropine and that the stimulation of MMP-7 mimics the actions of ACh. The gene discussed is MMP7; the disease is colonic neoplasm.