Background: Age-related macular degeneration is a progressive eye disease affecting the macula and causing acute visual loss particularly in elder people. The aim of the study was an attempt to discern an influence of expression levels and functional genetic polymorphisms of selected genes related to the extracellular matrix turnover or neovascularization on age-related macular degeneration occurrence and progression.
Methods: We conducted a case-control study of 200 polish patients with recognized age-related macular degeneration (dry and wet) and compared the results with those obtained from matched 100 healthy control subjects. TaqMan Genotyping Assays were employed to examine the following single nucleotide polymorphisms: matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 -735C/T, MMP-7 -181A/G, MMP-9 -1702T/A, and -1562C/T; tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-2 -418G/C; vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) +405 G/C and +936 C/T, VEGFR-2 +1719 T/A and -271 G/A. Real-time polymerase chain reaction was assessed to determine the mRNA quantity. Serum levels of proteins were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
Results: The single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping showed that TT genotype for MMP-9 -1702T/A and CC genotype for VEGF +936C/T increase markedly the risk of age-related macular degeneration but do not influence on its progression. Additionally, the possible protective effect of CC genetic variant in MMP-9 -1562C/T polymorphism against progression of age-related macular degeneration was observed. We also found significant differences in systemic expression levels of MMP-2, -7, -9, TIMP-2, vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGFR-2, and pigment epithelium-derived factor between studied group. The research demonstrated evident differences in serum levels of MMP-2, -7, -9, TIMP-2, vascular endothelial growth factor, and pigment epithelium-derived factor between wet and dry age-related macular degeneration patients.
Conclusions: We can conclude that disturbances in angiogenic homeostasis and processes of extracellular matrix turnover occurring in age-related macular degeneration-affected ocular tissues may be reflected in changes in systemic expression levels of the investigated genes.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration; metalloproteinase; single nucleotide polymorphism; vascular endothelial growth factor.