ral ssBioMed CentBMC Neurology Open AcceResearch article Functional polymorphisms in matrix metalloproteinases-1,-3,-9 and-12 in relation to cervical artery dissection

Background: Cervical artery dissection is a leading cause of cerebral ischemia in young adults. Morphological investigations have shown alterations in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of affected vessel walls. As matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) play a central role in the regulation of the ECM, an increased expression of these enzymes might lead to the endothelial damage in spontaneous cervical artery dissection (sCAD). Five different DNA polymorphisms in MMP-1,-3,-9 and-12 were tested for their frequency in patients with sCAD and compared with those of a control population. Methods: Blood was sampled from 70 unrelated patients presenting consecutively in the department of neurology of the Aachen University Medical School with sCAD and from 87 control subjects living in the same area as the patients. The MMP polymorphisms were analyzed with hybridization probes using the LightCycler ™ (Roche Diagnostics), by sequencing using the ABI 310 Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems) and with the GeneScan program on a ABI 310 Genetic Analyzer. Results: No statistically significant differences in the allelic distribution were found between sCA