Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in the Mmp-9 Gene is Associated with Susceptibility to Develop Multiple Sclerosis in an Italian Case-Control Study

To investigate the role of the matrix metalloproteinase-9 gene (MMP-9) in multiple sclerosis (MS), we analyzed the functional -1562C/T and -90 (CA)(n) repeat polymorphisms in 243 Italian patients with MS and 173 healthy controls. A significant increase of the 15621 allele carriers was found in patients with MS compared to controls. Moreover, haplotype analysis showed that the haplotype formed by the -1562T allele and the L allele ((CA)(<= 20)) was over-represented in patients with MS versus controls. These results suggest that a genetic polymorphism of the MMP-9 promoter region may influence the susceptibility to MS. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.