Background and aims: Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is common and highly variable in its severity, but the factors underlying this variability are unclear. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that polymorphic variations in Matrix Metalloproteinase (MMP) genes might be predictors of left ventricular (LV) remodelling and severity of regurgitation in MVP.
Methods and results: 70 MVP patients and 75 normal subjects were studied. We performed comprehensive echocardiography and analyzed promoter polymorphisms in the MMP-1 and MMP-3 genes. The MMP-3 -1612 5A/6A polymorphism showed strong associations with indices of mitral regurgitation and LV remodelling: Patients with 5A/5A allele had more pronounced remodelling and more severe mitral regurgitation than patients with the 6A/6A or 5A/6A alleles. We then cloned and sequenced 2 kb fragments of MMP-3 promoter from patients with 5A/5A and 6A/6A genotypes and found 4 different sets of promoter haplotypes. Promoter analysis showed that higher promoter activity was related to a more severe phenotype and that the haplotype variants had a more dominant role in determining the activity.
Conclusions: Our data identifies the MMP-3 promoter haplotype as a novel marker of an adverse disease course in MVP, suggesting the presence of genetic determinants for the severity of MVP.