Luckman Steven P, Gilhus Nils Erik, Romi Fredrik
Section for Neurology, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway.
Autoimmune Dis. 2011;2011:151258. doi: 10.4061/2011/151258. Epub 2011 Aug 1.
MMP-3 is capable of degrading a variety of proteins, including agrin, which plays a critical role in neuromuscular signaling by controlling acetylcholine receptor clustering. High MMP-3 levels in a proportion of myasthenia gravis (MG) patients have been reported. A pathogenic role of MMP-3 in other neurological disorders has been suggested but not proven. We have therefore examined the levels of MMP-3 in 124 MG patients and compared them to 59 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, 74 epilepsy patients, 33 acute stroke patients, and 90 healthy controls. 15.3% of the patients in the MG group were MMP-3-positive (defined as higher than cutoff value 48 ng/mL) with very high mean MMP-3 concentration (79.9 ng/mL), whereas the proportion of MMP-3 positive patients in the MS (3.4%), epilepsy (6.7%), stroke (0%), and the control group (4.4%) was significantly lower. Mean MMP-3 concentration in the total MG group (25.5 ng/mL) was significantly higher than in the MS (16.6 ng/mL) and stroke (11.7 ng/mL) groups, but did not differ significantly from the epilepsy (19.4 ng/mL) and the control group (23.4 ng/mL). MMP-3 may have a specific pathogenic effect in MG in addition to being associated with autoimmune diseases in general.
基质金属蛋白酶-3（MMP-3）能够降解多种蛋白质，包括聚集蛋白聚糖，后者通过控制乙酰胆碱受体聚集在神经肌肉信号传导中起关键作用。据报道，一部分重症肌无力（MG）患者的MMP-3水平较高。有人提出MMP-3在其他神经系统疾病中具有致病作用，但尚未得到证实。因此，我们检测了124例MG患者的MMP-3水平，并将其与59例多发性硬化症（MS）患者、74例癫痫患者、33例急性中风患者和90例健康对照者进行了比较。MG组中15.3%的患者MMP-3呈阳性（定义为高于临界值48 ng/mL），平均MMP-3浓度非常高（79.9 ng/mL），而MS组（3.4%）、癫痫组（6.7%）、中风组（0%）和对照组（4.4%）中MMP-3阳性患者的比例显著较低。MG组的平均MMP-3浓度（25.5 ng/mL）显著高于MS组（16.6 ng/mL）和中风组（11.7 ng/mL），但与癫痫组（19.4 ng/mL）和对照组（23.4 ng/mL）无显著差异。除了一般与自身免疫性疾病相关外，MMP-3可能在MG中具有特定的致病作用。
