Role of Matrix Metalloproteinase–9 in the Pathogenesis of Preeclampsia

The goal of this research was to investigate whether metalloproteinases could be used as predictors of preeclampsia (PE) during pregnancy.

This case-control study included 100 pregnant women which they further grouped into PE and control group (each composed of 50 women). Both groups were further subdivided according to their gestational age (GA), using the 37th week of gestation as a divider, as preterm and term infants.

In both preterm (P=0.001) and term infants (P=0.001), mean metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) was considerably lower in PE mothers compared to controls, with the difference being greater in preterm infants. In ROC analysis, MMP-9 showed excellent ability to predict PE in preterm infants (AUC = 0.980, cut-off ≤26.2) and good ability to predict PE in term infants (AUC 0.770, cut-off ≤ 34.4).

The matrix MMP-9 is a non-specific predictor of PE for term and preterm pregnant women, with higher accuracy for preterm pregnant women.