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. 2011 May;20(5):781-90.
doi: 10.1007/s00586-010-1573-9. Epub 2010 Sep 22.

Transcript levels of major MMPs and ADAMTS-4 in relation to the clinicopathological profile of patients with lumbar disc herniation

Alexandros Tsarouhas  1 , Giannoula Soufla, Pavlos Katonis, Dritan Pasku, Antonis Vakis, Demetrios A Spandidos
Affiliations

Transcript levels of major MMPs and ADAMTS-4 in relation to the clinicopathological profile of patients with lumbar disc herniation

Alexandros Tsarouhas et al. Eur Spine J. 2011 May.

Abstract

The involvement of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in both the pathogenesis of intervertebral disc (ID) herniation and the spontaneous regression of herniated ID fragments remains only partially elucidated. The purpose of the present study was to simultaneously examine the transcript levels of a large number of MMPs (-1, -3, -8, -9, -13 and -14) and ADAMTS-4 (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs) and to investigate their correlation with the clinicopathologic profile of patients suffering from symptomatic lumbar ID herniation. mRNA expression levels were determined by means of the real-time polymerase chain reaction in 63 herniated and 10 control ID specimens. Our results showed multiple positive correlations among all MMPs and ADAMTS-4 mRNA in herniated samples, indicating their possible synergistic effect in ID herniation. MMP-9 and -13 mRNA levels were significantly elevated in patients with chronic pain, presumably as a consequence of neovascularization and chronic inflammation. Smoking habits were found to have a negative dose-dependent effect on the transcript levels of MMP-3 and MMP-13 and a positive correlation with pain intensity, suggesting an unfavorable role for smoking in the regression process of herniated disc fragments. Our findings provide evidence of the molecular portrait of MMPs and ADAMTS-4 in lumbar ID herniation, as well as of its association with the clinicopathological profile of the patients included in this study, reinforcing the hypothesis of MMPs involvement in the natural history of ID herniation. However, further studies are necessary to elucidate the exact role of MMPs in the resorption process of herniated lumbar discs.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Normalized transcript levels of a MMP-9 and b MMP-13 in herniated disc specimens with respect to the duration of patient symptoms (P = 0.017 and P = 0.037, respectively; Kruskal–Wallis test)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Normalized transcript levels of a MMP-3 and b MMP-13 in smoking and non-smoking patients. Significantly lower MMP-3 (c) and MMP-13 (d) mRNA levels were observed in discs removed from patients smoking more than 20 cigarettes per day compared to non-smoking patients (P = 0.034 and P = 0.041, respectively; Mann–Whitney test)
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