Table 1.
Patients characteristics.
Fig 1.
Representative zymograms of A. 8 patients (P1-8) with ascending aortic aneurysm and B. 6 control patients (C1-6) undergoing coronary bypass surgery (CABG). Lane 1: protein ladder. Lane 2: human full length MMP-2. Lane A. 3–10 and B. 3–8: tissue samples zymograms showing different gelatinolytic activities corresponding to Pro-MMP-2 and active MMP-2.
Fig 2.
Comparison between aneurysm and control group (A) Pro-MMP-2, (B) active MMP-2, (C) total MMP-2 reveals significantly larger amounts of active MMP-2 and significant smaller amounts of Pro-MMP-2 in the aneurysm group, whereas total MMP-2 did not differ significantly between the two groups (MMP-2 isoforms given in AU).
Fig 3.
Comparison between aneurysm and control group (D) MMP-14 and (E) TIMP-2 shows significant lower amounts of TIMP-2 in the aneurysm group whereas MMP-14 did not differ significantly between the two groups (MMP-14 and TIMP-2 given in ng/mL).
Fig 4.
ROC curve of active MMP-2/Pro-MMP-2 ratio.
The AUC (A) analyzing active MMP-2/Pro-MMP-2 ratio with a cutoff value of 0.11 illustrates perfect discrimination (AUC = 1) of aneurysmatic from control tissue.
Table 2.
Analysis of comorbidities' influence on protein levels in the aneurysm group.