The cientificWorldJOURNAL Clinical Study Elevation of Matrix Metalloproteinases in Different Areas of Ascending Aortic Aneurysms in Patients with Bicuspid and

Copyright © 2012 Salah A. Mohamed et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Our aim is to investigate the elevation of matrix proteins in tissues obtained from distal, above the sinotubular junction (proximal), concave, and convex sites of aneurysms in the ascending aorta using a simultaneous multiplex protein detection system. Tissues were collected from 41 patients with ascending aortic aneurysms. A total of 31 patients had a bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), whereas 10 had a tricuspid aortic valve (TAV). Concave and convex aortic site samples were collected from all patients, whereas proximal and distal convexity samples were obtained from 19 patients with BAV and 7 patients with TAV. Simultaneous detection of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their inhibitors (TIMPs) was performed at each of the four aortic sites. MMP-2 levels were higher in the concave aortic sites than in the convex aortic sites. In contrast, MMP-8 levels were higher in the convex sites than in the concave sites, as were MMP-9 levels. In both BAV and TAV patients, TIMP-3 levels were higher in the concave sites than in the convex sites. However, TIMP-2 and TIMP-4 levels were significantly elevated in the sinotubular proximal aorta of BAV patients