Moreover, we found moderate and strong correlations between NF-κβ and VEGF in the patient group; as it is known that NF-κβ acts in a pathway to regulate the activity of VEGF in cholesteatoma [25,27], this might indicate complex intercorrelations between MMP-2, MMP-9, NF-κβ and VEGF, affecting angiogenesis in the cholesteatoma perimatrix. Here, MMP9 is linked to cholesteatoma.