MMP2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Furthermore, it has been shown that matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) is a downstream target of the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway and participates in the migration of tumour cells (Katoh and Katoh, 2017; Zhang et al., 2017), in which MMP-2 is the dominant molecule in the metastasis of hepatoma cells, its overexpression is associated with metastasis of hepatoma cells (Dou et al., 2016).