MMP2 and non-small cell lung carcinoma: In vitro studies, TGF-β1 induced EMT in NSCLC A549 cells, resulting in morphological changes, phosphorylation of Smad2 and Smad3, down-regulation of E-cadherin and up-regulation of Vimentin, N-cadherin, Snail, Slug, and MMP2 (Zhao et al., 2015; Feng et al., 2017; Lim et al., 2017).