Effects of age on plasma matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMPs).

Background: The mechanisms causing age-dependent changes in left ventricular (LV) structure and function are not completely understood. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMPs) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) constitute one important proteolytic pathway affecting LV remodeling. However, whether these determinants of extracellular matrix (ECM) composition change as a function of age has not been examined in an aging population free of clinically significant cardiovascular disease.

Matrix metalloproteinases/tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases: relationship between changes in proteolytic determinants of matrix composition and structural, functional, and clinical manifestations of hypertensive heart disease.

Background: Chronic hypertension may cause left ventricular (LV) remodeling, alterations in cardiac function, and the development of chronic heart failure (CHF). Changes in the composition of the extracellular matrix (ECM) known to occur in hypertension are believed to be causally related to these structural, functional, and clinical outcomes. However, whether the determinants of ECM composition, such as the balance between ECM proteases (matrix metalloproteinases [MMPs]) and their tissue inhibitors [TIMPs]), are altered in hypertensive heart disease is unknown.