Epithelial MMP-7 activation was detected as early as 24 hours after infection and importantly, MMP-7 showed no detectable co-localization with neutrophils in the mucosa or sub-mucosa (S6 Fig) To further evaluate the involvement of MMP-7 in acute cystitis, we infected Mmp7-/- mice [40] with CFT073 and used Asc-/- mice as disease controls. Here, MMP7 is linked to acute cystitis.