title: Investigation of the role ofMMP3 -1171insApolymorphism in cutaneous malignant melanoma - a preliminary study.
abstract: Coetaneous malignant melanoma is the most aggressive cancer of the skin with a high rate of mortality worldwide. Degradation of basement membranes and extracellular matrix is an essential step in cancer invasion and metastasis. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) play key roles in this step. MMP-3 also called stromelysin-1 was one of the first proteinases found to be associated with cancer. In the gene of MMP-3(MMP3), an insertion/deletion of an A nucleotide at position -1171 in promoter region has been identified and shown to effect the expression activity of the gene. The present study was conducted to investigate the relation ofMMP3 -1171insApolymorphism with skin malignant melanoma risk in a pilot case-control study of Bulgarian patients (n = 26) and unaffected controls (n = 172). The genotypes of controls and melanoma patients were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The results showed no statistically significant difference both in genotype and allele frequencies ofMMP3 -1171insApolymorphism between melanoma patients and healthy controls either in crude analyses (p = 0.360 and 0.790, c2-test) or after adjustment for age and sex. The comparison of some clinical characteristics between the patients with different genotypes showed a trend for longer survival of patients with6A/6Agenotype compared to the carriers of5Aallele (5A/5A+5A/6Agenotypes, p = 0.118, Log rank test). The results of our current preliminary study do not provide evidence for the role of the promoter polymorphism-1171insAinMMP3as a risk factor for development of coetaneous melanoma, but suggest its implication in progression of the diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Medical Faculty, Trakia Univesity , Stara Zagora , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Tatyana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vlaykova
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Pomeranian Medical University , Szczecin , Poland.
authors.forename: Mateusz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kurzawski
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Medical Faculty, Trakia Univesity , Stara Zagora , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Tanya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tacheva
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Medical Faculty, Trakia Univesity , Stara Zagora , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Dimo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dimov
authors.affiliation: Department of General and Clinical Pathology, Medical Faculty, Trakia Univesity , Stara Zagora , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Maya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gulubova
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Medical Faculty, Trakia Univesity , Stara Zagora , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Yovcho
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yovchev
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biology, Sofia University , Sofia , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Stoyan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chakarov
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Pomeranian Medical University , Szczecin , Poland.
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Drozdzik
keywords: MMP3; genetic predisposition; skin malignant melanoma; survival