Negative association between serum levels of matrix metalloproteinases-2 and -9 and aortic stiffness in healthy adults.
BACKGROUND
Arterial stiffness is a marker of cardiovascular disease and independent predictor of cardiovascular risk. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are zinc-dependent endopeptidases that degrade components of the extracellular matrix, which is an important determinant of the arterial elastic properties. This study sought to investigate the association between MMP-2 and MMP-9 (gelatinase A and B respectively) and arterial stiffness in healthy human subjects.


METHODS
A total of 213 apparently healthy subjects (mean age 41 years, range 18 to 60, 141 males and 72 females) were studied. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) and aortic augmentation index (AIx) were measured as indices of aortic stiffness and wave reflections respectively. Associations with serum levels of total MMP-2, total MMP-9 and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) were evaluated with multiple regression models.


RESULTS
In these models, PWV exhibited a significant negative association with both MMP-2 (standardized b=-0.177, P=0.003) and MMP-9 (b=-0.122, P=0.032), after controlling for potential confounding factors such as age, gender, blood pressure, heart rate, body-mass index, smoking habits (pack-years), blood glucose, total cholesterol, and level of subclinical inflammation expressed by hsCRP (adjusted R2 of models 0.352 and 0.338 respectively). On the other hand, no relationship between MMP-2 or MMP-9 and AIx was found.


CONCLUSIONS
Circulating MMP-2 and MMP-9 are inversely associated with large artery stiffness but not with wave reflections in healthy persons. This finding implies that these gelatinases may have a possible role in the determination of arterial function and has potential implications for their involvement in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases.
Vlachopoulos
Charalambos
C
1st Department of Cardiology, Athens Medical School, Hippokration Hospital, Athens, Greece. cvlachop@otenet.gr
Aznaouridis
Konstantinos
K
Dima
Ioanna
I
Ioakeimidis
Nikolaos
N
Vasiliadou
Carmen
C
Zervoudaki
Alexandra
A
Gialernios
Theodoros
T
Stefanadis
Christodoulos
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001011:Aorta / Q000201:enzymology / Q000473:pathology; D001018:Aortic Diseases / Q000097:blood* / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020778:Matrix Metalloproteinase 2 / Q000097:blood* / Q000502:physiology; D020780:Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 / Q000097:blood* / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged
D015415:Biomarkers; D020778:Matrix Metalloproteinase 2; D020780:Matrix Metalloproteinase 9