The CK-18 M30 and MMP-2 values of patients whose liver biopsy revealed a fibrosis stage of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 were higher than the CK-18 M30 and MMP-2 values of controls ( P = 0.01, P = 0.01, P = 0.01, P = 0.001, and P = 0.01, respectively). Here, MMP2 is linked to fibrosis.