Common gene haplotypes of gelatinases and their tissue inhibitors in abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) involves complex dynamic remodeling processes in the aortic wall. Gelatinases (MMP2 and MMP9) and their respective tissue inhibitors (TIMP1 and TIMP2) play a crucial role during extracellular matrix (ECM) turnover in aortic tissue. In this study we characterized associations between the haplotypes of genes encoding gelatinase/inhibitor pairs and pathways involved in AAA, a total of 100 AAA patients and 192 controls were enrolled. For males, a significant decrease in the distribution of the minor G allele of the TIMP2 rs8082025 was observed in AAA patients (p = 0.01, 23.1% controls vs. 13.1% AAA). In addition, in males, the major TIMP2 GA haplotype was associated with AAA (86.9% AAA vs. 76.9% control; p = 0.009, OR = 1.997), whereas the TIMP2 GG haplotype (7.7% AAA vs. 13.9% control) was associated with protection against AAA (p = 0.046, OR = 0.518). The minor GAGC MMP9 haplotype was related to AAA for all study subjects as well as the males only subset (p = 0.011, OR = 2.202 and p = 0.025, OR = 2.156, respectively). Small differences in the distribution of gene haplotypes could be associated with different levels of gene expression and in turn influence gelatinases activity in AAA.

miR-21, miR-221 and miR-150 Are Deregulated in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Colorectal Cancer.

The Aim of this study was to evaluate the expression levels of miR-21, miR-221, miR-150, let-7a and miR-126a in peripheral blood of 71 patients with colorectal cancer and 80 matched healthy control individuals. We determined expression levels of these microRNAs in peripheral blood samples and used small nucleolar RNA (RNU48) as an internal control. Expression levels of miR-21 (p<0.0001) and miR-221 (p<0.0001) were significantly higher, whereas expression levels of miR-150 (p=0.0054) were significantly lower in the blood samples of patients with colorectal cancer in comparison to the control group. The combination of these three microRNAs enabled us to distinguish patients with colorectal cancer from healthy donors with a sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 74% (p<0.0001). We did not observe any correlation of the studied microRNAs with clinicopathological features of colorectal cancer, indicating that expression of these microRNAs is more likely related to the host response to the tumour than the tumour itself.