Transcripts for several proteins involved in pathways that are known to become dysregulated in cancer, including VEGF, MAPK, and Ras pathways (represented by transcripts of Mmp9, Ifgn, Stat2, Il6, Cdh1 Egfr, Tgfb1, Il23a, and Nos2), were significantly increased in tissues with atrophic gastritis compared with infected animals with non-atrophic gastritis (Fig. 3C, Table S3) (50, –, 52) or uninfected animals. Here, MMP9 is linked to chronic atrophic gastritis.