OBJECTIVE We recently demonstrated that inducible cyclooxygenase/PGE synthase-1 (COX-2/mPGES-1) are overexpressed in symptomatic plaques in association with PGE2-dependent metalloproteinase (matrix metalloproteinase [MMP]) biosynthesis and plaque rupture. However, it is not known which of the 4 PGE2 receptors (EP1-4) mediates macrophage metalloproteinase generation. The aim of this study was to...

We compared serum levels of a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs (ADAMTS)-4, ADAMTS-5, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1, and MMP-3 in patients with different stages of knee osteoarthritis (OA), and investigated the clinical significance of diagnosing OA in early stages. OA patients were divided into 2 groups: early OA group (44 cases), intermediate and advanced OA grou...

During enamel development, matrix metalloproteinase-20 (MMP-20, enamelysin) is expressed early during the secretory stage as the enamel thickens, and kallikrein-4 (KLK-4, EMSP1) is expressed later during the maturation stage as the enamel hardens. Thus, we investigated whether the physical properties of the secretory-/maturation-stage MMP-20 null enamel were significantly different from those o...

This study tested the hypothesis that membrane-tethered type-1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP)-induced proteolysis of T cell CD44 is important for defining the migration and function of autoreactive T cells, including diabetogenic, insulin-specific and K(d)-restricted IS-CD8(+) cells. To confirm the importance of MT1-MMP proteolysis of CD44 in type 1 diabetes (T1D), the anti-diabetic effects...

We examined the role of tissue plasminogen activator- (tPA-) matrix metalloproteinase- (MMP-) 9 in mobilizing endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) from bone marrow to circulation and critical limb ischemia (CLI) region. Male C57BL/6J mice having been irradiated were categorized into wild-type mice (WT) receiving WT bone marrow cell (BMC) transfusion (group 1), WT mice receiving MMP-9 knockout (M...

Antidepressants induce structural remodeling in the adult hippocampus, including changes in dendritic arbors, axonal sprouting, neurogenesis, and endothelial cell proliferation. Such forms of structural plasticity take place in the context of the extracellular matrix environment and are known to be regulated by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), in particular MMP-2/9, and their endogenous regula...

Endothelial cells lining the inner blood vessel walls play a key role in the response to hypoxia, which is frequently encountered in clinical conditions such as myocardial infarction, renal ischemia and cerebral ischemia. In the present study we investigated the effects of hypoxia and hypoxia/reoxygenation on gelatinases (matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9), their inhibitor (TIMP-2) and activato...

Imbalance between matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases (TIMPs) is an important control point in tissue remodelling. Several findings have reported a marked MMP/TIMP imbalance in a variety of in vitro models in which oxidative stress was induced. Since previous studies showed that commercial hyaluronan and chondroitin-4-sulphate are able to limit lip...

conclusions our results suggest that tetracyclines dose-dependently inhibit mmp-9 activity, and among the common clinical tetracyclines, minocycline provides the most potent inhibition of excess mmp-9 activity and its consequences. materials and methods an mmp-9-rich culture medium of u-937 cells was used as the source of the enzyme. serial dilutions of 5, 20, 100, 200, and 500 µm of each drug ...

BACKGROUND Changes in matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and tissue inhibitors of MMPs (TIMPs) contribute to left ventricular (LV) remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI). We tested the hypothesis that a specific plasma MMP/TIMP profile would emerge after MI and be associated with the degree of LV dilation. METHODS AND RESULTS LV end-diastolic volume and MMP/TIMP plasma profiles were determin...