MMP9 and renal cell carcinoma: To search the downstream potential genes that can mediate the ATP-P2RX6-Ca2+ −p-ERK1/2-increased RCC cell migration and invasion, we then screen several metastasis related genes that expressed in both SN12-PM6 and 786-O cells, and results revealed that manipulating P2RX6 could produce consistent changes in MMP9 and MMP13 mRNA expression (Fig. 4a).