Elevated matrix metalloproteinase-9 in patients with systemic sclerosis.docVIP

Available online /content/7/1/R71 Research article Open Access Vol 7 No 1 Elevated matrix metalloproteinase-9 in patients with systemic sclerosis Wan-Uk Kim, So-Youn Min, Mi-La Cho, Kyung-Hee Hong, Yong-Joo Shin, Sung-Hwan Park and Chul-Soo Cho Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Catholic Research Institutes of Medical Science, School of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea Corresponding author: Chul-Soo Cho, chocs@catholic.ac.kr Received: 19 Mar 2004 Revisions requested: 19 Apr 2004 Revisions received: 23 Sep 2004 Accepted: 1 Oct 2004 Published: 10 Nov 2004 Arthritis Res Ther 2005, 7:R71-R79 (DOI 10.1186/ar1454) ? 2004 Kim et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. /content/7/1/R71 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (/licenses/by/ 2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is cited. Abstract Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cancer, autoimmune disease, and various pathologic conditions characterized by excessive fibrosis. In this study, we investigated the expression of MMP-9 and its clinical significance in systemic sclerosis (SSc). The patients (n = 42) with SSc had higher concentrations of MMP-9 and of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) and a higher ratio of MMP-9 to TIMP-1 in sera than healthy controls (n = 32). Serum MMP-9 concentrations were significantly higher in the diffuse type (n = 23) than the limited type of SSc (n = 19). Serum concentrations of MMP-9 correlated well with the degree of skin involvement, as determined by the Rodnan score and with serum concentrations of transforming growth factor β. Moreover, dermal fibroblasts from patients with SSc produced more MMP-9 than those from healthy controls when they were stimulated with IL-1β, tumor necros