Basement membrane degradation and blood-brain barrier damage appear after cerebral infarction, severely impacting neuronal and brain functioning.

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Immunohistochemical assay demonstrated that matrix metalloproteinase-9 expression increased in the infarct border zones of stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats.
Credit: Neural Regeneration Research

Matrix metalloproteinase-9 is able to degrade the major components of the basement membrane around cerebral blood vessels and to mediate extracellular matrix remodeling. Therefore, Dr. Huilian Hou and colleagues from the First Affiliated Hospital of Medical School of Xi'an Jiaotong University, China induced cerebral infarction in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats by intragastric administration of high-sodium water (1.3% NaCl) for 7 consecutive weeks.

Researchers found that matrix metalloproteinase-9 expression, the number of blood vessels with discontinuous collagen IV expression and microvessel density were significantly higher, and the number of continuous collagen IV-positive blood vessels was lower in the infarct border zones of stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats given high-sodium water.

Linear correlation analysis showed matrix metalloproteinase-9 expression was positively correlated with the number of discontinuously collagen IV-labeled blood vessels and microvessel density in cerebral infarcts of stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats.

These results published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 11, 2014) suggest that matrix metalloproteinase-9 upregulation is associated with increased regional angiogenesis and degradation of collagen IV, the major component of the basal lamina, in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats with high-sodium water-induced focal cerebral infarction.

Article: " High matrix metalloproteinase-9 expression induces angiogenesis and basement membrane degradation in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats after cerebral infarction," by Huilian Hou, Guanjun Zhang, Hongyan Wang, Huilin Gong, Chunbao Wang, Xuebin Zhang (Department of Pathology, the First Affliated Hospital of Medical School of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China)

Hou HL, Zhang GJ, Wang HY, Gong HL, Wang CB, Zhang XB. High matrix metalloproteinase-9 expression induces angiogenesis and basement membrane degradation in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats after cerebral infarction. Neural Regen Res. 2014;9(11):1154-1162.