title: Serum MMP-9 is elevated in children with asthma.
abstract: This study explored the association of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) serum concentration and gene polymorphism with childhood asthma. Serum levels of MMP-9 were determined by sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 65 children with asthma (cases) and 68 healthy children (controls), and the -1562C/T polymorphism in MMP-9 was detected by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment-length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis. The results showed that the mean serum levels of MMP-9 in the children with asthma (136.53 ± 29.96 ng/ml) were significantly higher than that in the healthy controls (45.08 ± 12.53 ng/ml; P<0.05). At MMP-9 base position -1562, the frequencies of the genotypes CC, CT and TT in cases were 67.7, 29.2 and 3.1% and in controls were 73.5, 25.0 and 1.5%. The allele frequencies of C and T in cases vs. controls were 82.3 and 17.7% vs. 86.0 and 14.0%, respectively. No statistically significant difference was detected in genotype or allele frequency between these groups. In addition, no significant difference in serum levels of MMP-9 was observed within groups among children with different genotypes (P>0.05). Therefore, whereas serum levels of MMP-9 are associated with the occurrence of childhood asthma, the MMP-9 -1562C/T gene polymorphism has no correlation with the pathogenesis of childhood asthma.
authors: Department of Clinical Laboratory, Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical College, Haikou, Hainan 571101, PR China. zhu_hong1970@126.com
authors: Zhu
authors: Z
authors: Hong
authors: Ya-Mei
authors: YM
authors: Lin
authors: Xi
authors: X
authors: Qin
authors: Jiang-Long
authors: JL
authors: Peng
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000483:Alleles; D001249:Asthma / Q000097:blood* / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020780:Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic
chemical_list: D020780:Matrix Metalloproteinase 9