Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) at mRNA and protein levels in primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and their relationship with clinicopathological parameters. Methods RT-PCR technique and Maxvision^TM immunohistochemical method were used to detect MMP-2 mRNA and protein levels in 47 paired HCC and cancer adjacent tissue samples and 20 normal liver tissues samples,respectively. Results The positive rates of expressions of MMP-2 mRNA and protein in 47 HCC cases were 70.2%（33/47）and 63.8％（30/47）, respectively,which were significantly higher than those in cancer adjacent tissues and in normal liver tissues (12.7％and 10.0％, respectively). The positive rates of MMP-2 expression in HCC were higher than that in adjacent non-HCC liver tissue and in normal liver tissue and the difference was statistically significant (P＜0.01);the difference of MMP-2 expressions between adjacent non-HCC liver tissue and normal liver tissue had no statistically significance (P>0.05). The two methods had no statistically significance (P>0.05).② The high positive rates of MMP-2 in TNM stages of Ⅲ~Ⅳ were significantly higher than those in stages of Ⅰ~Ⅱ(P＜0.05), and the positive rates of MMP-2 in HCC with metastasis was higher than that without metastasis(P＜0.05).The positive rate of MMP-2 in HCC with tumor thrombus was higher than that without thrombus (P＜0.05). Conclusion The expressions of MMP-2 are closely correlated with TNM staging, tumor thrombus and metastasis in HCC which may serve as predictors for determining tumor aggressive behavior in HCC.