Strikingly, in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells, the loss of mdig appeared to favor the open chromatin structure of the genome for metastatic genes CXCL12, CXCR4, MMP-1, and MMP-9, while enhancing the formation of closed chromatin for UPA (Fig. 5b). This evidence concerns the gene CXCR4 and breast carcinoma.