Role of matrix metalloproteinase-9 gene polymorphisms in glaucoma: A hospital-based study in Chinese patients

Abstract

Background: Glaucoma is the irreversible vision loss and contributes second leading cause of blindness worldwide. Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) is involved with remodeling and destruction of extracellular matrix. Elevated MMP-9 levels and various functional variants of MMP-9 have been associated with glaucoma in different population. In the current investigation, we tested association of MMP-9 common variants with different clinical categories of glaucoma in Chinese population. Materials and Methods: We enrolled total of 396 glaucoma patients those reported to hospital comprising of 212 primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG) cases and 184 primary open-angle glaucoma POAG patients. In addition, 329 normal individuals from similar geographical areas were enrolled as healthy controls. Five common single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs3918242, rs3918254, rs2250889, rs3918249, and rs17576) were genotyped by PCR-RFLP. Plasma levels of MMP-9 were quantified by ELISA. Results: Heterozygotes (GC) and allele “G” for rs2250889 polymorphism were more frequent in PACG cases compared with healthy controls (GC: P