Association between the polymorphisms of matrix metalloproteinases 9 and 3 genes and risk of myocardial infarction in Egyptian patients

The present study investigated the relationship between the genetic polymorphisms in MMP-9 and MMP-3 genes and acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We examined 40 patients with acute myocardial infarction and 40 age and sex matched controls for MMP-9 functional promoter polymorphism (−1562 C > T) and MMP-3 (5A/6A) deletion/insertion polymorphism using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) for amplified genomic DNA. The frequencies of the combined mutant genotypes CT and TT in the (−1562 C > T) MMP9 were significantly higher in AMI patients (20%) when compared to the controls (0%) (p value = 0.005) showing an association between these genotypes and AMI. Also there was a significant difference between 5A/5A genotype and 5A allele frequencies when both are compared in the patients (25% and 35%) and the controls (2.5% and 18.75%) (p = 0.009; OR = 13; CI = 1.576–107.233); and (p = 0.02; OR = 2.333, CI = 1.130–4.820) respectively. In conclusion, the −1562C > T polymorphism of the MMP9 gene is strongly associated with acute myocardial infarction in the Egyptian population. Furthermore, our study supported the presence of the 5A/5A genotype of MMP3 gene promoter polymorphism as a risk factor of AMI in Egyptian patients. Meanwhile, the race selection should be paid more attention since the pathogenesis of a disease might have different bases in different racial population groups.