PRO JECT
1. Wilmink AB, Quick CR, Hubbard CS, Day NE. The association between connective tissue laxity and the risk of AAA. Eur J Vasc Endovasc Surg 2000; 20: 290-5. Abstract (abridged from authors): 190 cases and 231 controls. A connective tissue laxity score was calculated with a combination of the Bieghton joint mobility score and the presence of pes planus, scoliosis, pectus deformities, flexible auricular cartilages, and Gorlin's sign. Odds ratios were 3.1 for the highest group ofconnective tissue scores, and 2.4 for the middle group. Serum TypeIII Procollagen by radio-immunoassay was the same in cases and controls. "Aneurysms may be associated with abnormal connective tissue rather than an increased breakdown of normal collagen." comment by mdt: That's what I thought too for many years, but I could never prove it. We began to make more progress when we turned away from the notion that a mutation was affecting the structural collagen, to the idea of matrix instability. 2. Crowther M, et al. Increased matrix MMP-2 expression in vascular smooth muscle cells cultured from AAA. J Vasc Surg 2000; 32: 575-83. Abstract: Aortic SMCs and dermal fibroblasts were cultured from AAA patients and age-matched controls with atherosclerosis. All cells constitutively produced MMP-2 (AAA significantly greater than control SMC's). MMP-2 mRNA was also higher in AAA than control. Dermal fibroblasts were similar to control fibroblasts. Levels for MMP's 1, 3, and 9 were the same in AAA and controls. The authors conclude that regulation of MMP-2 gene expression is altered in aortic SMC's. comment by mdt: Something seems unusual here. Combining information from tables III and IV, the median concentrations of MMP-2 in ng/mL, from conditioned serum-free medium are: Control SMC ---- 262.3 AAA SMC---------- 758.2 Control fibroblast 779.6 AAA fibroblast---- 662.5 I would not have predicted that dermal fibroblasts, from either AAA or control patients, would be producing almost three times as much enzyme as AAA SMC's.