Abstract
Vascular endothelial cells (EC) have been shown to produce various biologically active substances and play an important role in both physiology and pathology of the blood vessels. EC have been shown to produce metalloproteinases (MMP) and tissue inhibitor of MMP TIMP. Vascular tissue may be composed of type N collagen which is a main conponent of vascular basement membrane and type I or II collagen, a main stromal matrix component. These different matrix conponents are digested by different MMP. Imbalance of MMP and TIMP produced by EC may cause vascular events: for example, increased MMP and decreased TIMP are a predisposing factor leading to vascular damage, inflammatory cell infiltration and metastasis of malignant cells, while decreased MMP and increased TIMP may lead to fibrosis, atherosclerosis or wound healing.
It has been shown that cytokines modulate production of TIMP by EC. Our data imply that IL-1 or tumor necrosis factor inhibit TIMP production by EC, while IL-6 promote it. Therefore, regulation of matrix conponent, MMP and TIMP may be important for tissue repair, wound healing, atherosclerosis and inflammation.
