Relationship between the levels of serum MMP-9,TIMP-1 and clinical cerebral infarction

Objective To investigate the changes of serum MMP-9 and TIMP1 levels in patients with acute cerebral infarction and to evaluate the effect of changes of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 levels on prognosis. Methods Sixty patients with cerebral infarction were included in this study,and 20 healthy people served as the control group.According to TOAST typing,the patients were divided into three groups:cardiogenic embolism(CE,20 patients),large artery atherosclerosis(LAA,20 patients) and lacunar infarction(SA, 20 patients).The serum specimens were collected for MMP-9 and TIMP-1 determination with ELISA on admission and on 5~(th) and 10~(th) days of onset.All patients were scored according to the NIHSS on admission and Barthal Index was recorded at 1~(st) and 6~(th) months after onset.Results The serum levels of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 increased after cerebral infarction,and were significantly higher than those in the control group(P0.05).MMP-9 and TIMP-1 in CE and LAA groups were significantly higher than those in SA group(P0.05).MMP9 and TIMP-1 in SA group gradually decreased to normal while they were still high in CE and LAA group on the 5~(th) day after onset.Correlation analysis showed that there was a positive correlation between MMP-9 and NIHSS within 24 hours after onset(r=0.883,P0.01).The serum level of MMP 9 within 24 hours after onset was significantly lower in the cases with better prognosis than in those with worse prognosis.Conclusions Serum level of MMP-9 was related to NIHSS and can reflect the severity of cerebral infarction.Its level within 24 hours after onset can predict prognosis of cerebral infarction independently.