TIMP-1 in asthma TIMP-1 in asthma: guilty by association

A novel TIMP-1 polymorphism is associated with asthma in women O ver the last few years there has been increasing interest in the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in asthma. The MMPs are a family of over 20 zinc dependent endo-peptidases with a range of substrate specificities. Although originally classi-fied into gelatinases, stromolysins, col-lagenases, and matrilysins by their ability to cleave extracellular matrix components, it is now clear that MMPs have an increasing range of other func