Abstract:Objective：To study the relationship of expression of nuclear factor kappab gene and MMP-2mRNA and with lymph node metastasis of pancreatic cancer. Methods：The expression of NF-κB was investigated by Western blot in normal pancreatic(NP) samples of 9 cases and pancreatic cancer(PC) samples of 45 cases(lymph node metastasis 30 cases, non-lymph node metastasis 15 cases). The expression of MMP-2mRNA was detected through semiquantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results：Of 45 PC cases, the positive expression rate of p65 and MMP-2mRNA was 66.7%（30/45） and 57.7%（26/45），respectively. Of 30 cases of lymph node metastasis, the positive expression rate of p65 and MMP-2mRNA was 83.3%（25/30）and 73.3 %(22/30)， respectively. Of 15 cases of non- lymph node metastasis, the positive expression rate of p65 and MMP-2mRNA is 33.3%（5/15） and 26.7%（4/15）, respectively, and the expression of p65 gene was positively correlated with MMP-2mRNA expression（r=0.743,P<0.05）. Conclusions：The abnormal expression of NF-κB is closely associated with lymph node metastasis of PC. NF-κB is closely related to MMP-2，which indicated that NF-κB is involved in the lymph node metastasis of PC by mediating downstream gene expression.