Association of GWAS-Reported Variant of Matrix Metalloproteinase 12 Gene with Susceptibility to Ischemic Stroke in Southern Chinese Population.

Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 12 plays a detrimental role in cerebro-cardiovascular diseases, including ischemic stroke (IS). Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) correlated the rs660599 variant to IS risk in Europeans. However, this association is yet to be elucidated in the Chinese population.