WEDNESDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) -- In rats with an induced cerebral aneurysm, the progression towards rupture is regulated by tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases 1 (TIMP1) and 2 (TIMP-2), according to a study published in the August issue of Stroke. Given that there is no treatment to suppress cerebral aneurysms, the study findings imply that modulating matrix metalloproteinases or TIMPs may offer a way to inhibit aneurysm progression, the authors conclude.
Hiroharu Kataoka, M.D., Ph.D., of Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in Kyoto, Japan, and colleagues examined brain tissue from rats that had undergone experimentally induced cerebral aneurysm and quantified the expression of TIMP-1 and TIMP-2.
The tissue inhibitors were expressed by smooth muscle cells in the aneurysmal walls in the early stages of progression of the aneurysm. There was a significant increase in expression of matrix metalloproteinases 2 and 9 in the later stages of aneurysm formation.
"Our findings suggest that TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 have a protective role for the progression of cerebral aneurysms. There is an imbalance between matrix metalloproteinases and TIMPs in the late stage of cerebral aneurysm formation, which may be responsible for extracellular matrix degradation leading to the progression and rupture of cerebral aneurysms," the authors write.
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