Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is one of the
malignancies with an excellent prognosis. However, in PTC, progression or dedifferentiation into poorly differentiated
thyroid cancer (
PDTC) or
anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) extremely jeopardizes patients' prognosis. MMP1 is a
zinc-dependent
endopeptidase, and its role in PTC progression and dedifferentiation is unclear. In this study, transcriptome data of
PDTC/ATC and PTC from the Gene Expression Omnibus and The
Cancer Genome Atlas databases were utilized to perform an integrated analysis of MMP1 as a potential regulator of
tumor progression and dedifferentiation in PTC. Both bulk and single-cell
RNA-sequencing data confirmed the high expression of MMP1 in ATC tissues and cells, and further study verified that MMP1 possessed good diagnostic and prognostic value in PTC and
PDTC/ATC. Up-regulated MMP1 was found to be positively related to more aggressive clinical characteristics, worse survival, extracellular matrix-related pathways, oncogenic immune microenvironment, more mutations, higher stemness, and more dedifferentiation of PTC. Meanwhile, in vitro experiments verified the high level of MMP1 in
PDTC/ATC cell lines, and MMP1 knockdown and its inhibitor
triolein could both inhibit the cell viability of PTC and
PDTC/ATC. In conclusion, our findings suggest that MMP1 is a potential regulator of
tumor progression and dedifferentiation in PTC, and might become a novel therapeutic target for PTC, especially for more aggressive
PDTC and ATC.