MMPs in Unusual Places

Glutamate in unusual places

Glutamate in unusual places lutamate has a critical physiological function unrelated to its job as a neurotransmitter, according to results from M.M. Reddy and Paul Quinton (University of California, San Diego, CA). The duo find that glutamate activates an epithelial ion channel that is mutated in patients with cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is caused by mutations in the CFTR anion channel, w...

Substrate Specificity of MMPs

All the Wrong Places: An Unusual Case of Foreign Body Ingestion and Inhalation

Intentional ingestion of foreign bodies is common in psychiatric patients and prison inmates. Timing of endoscopy for ingested foreign bodies varies and depends on the type and location of the foreign body in the gastrointestinal tract. We present the case of a 26-year-old man who was brought from a correctional facility after confessing to have swallowed a few shower curtain hooks. Abdominal X...

Prognostic Role of MMPs in Colorectal Cancer

[9], the action of MMP-2 is thought to be determined by the interaction with TIMP1. According to the results of this study, no correlations of the expression of MMP-2 with factors related with the tumor’s stage, differentiation, lymphovascular invasion, distant metastasis and recurrence were found, so drawing a conclusion in this study about the prognostic role of MMPs was difficult. This study...

MMPs and ADAMTSs: functional studies.

Members of the MMP (matrix metalloproteinase) and ADAMTS (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin type I motifs) families of enzymes are capable of cleaving a diverse array of cellular, extracellular and extracellular matrix substrates, including collagens and procollagens, proteoglycans, cytokines and cytokine ligands, chemokines, elastin and von Willebrand factor, thereby modu...