Therefore, we next determined levels of endogenous miR-21 and ECM mediators in colon cancer cell line LS174 by RT-qPCR, and found a positive correlation between miR-21 and ECM mediators MMP-2, MMP-9, and MMP-11, but not between miR-21 and ECM inhibitor TIMP-2 (Fig. 2A). Here, MMP9 is linked to malignant colon neoplasm.