S-70 1 Division of Rheumatology, 2 Department of Internal Medicine and 3 Division of Immunology, Gulhane Military School of Medicine, Ankara; 4 Division of Rheumatology, Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. Salih Pay, MD, Associate Professor in Rheumatology; Tarlan Abbasov, MD, Resident in Internal Medicine; Hakan Erdem, MD, Associate Professor in Rheumatology; Ugur Musabak, MD, Associate Professor in Immunology; Ismail Simsek, MD, Specialist in Rheumatology; Aysel Pekel, Biologist in Immunology; Ali Akdogan, MD, Specialist in Rheumatology; Ali Sengul, MD, Professor in Immunology; Ayhan Dinc, MD, Professor in Rheumatology . Please address correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr. Salih Pay, GATA Romatoloji BD, 06018, Etlik, Ankara, Turkey. E-mail: salihp@yahoo.com Received on May 2, 2006 ; accepted in revised form on January 26, 2007. © Copyright CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RHEUMATOLOGY 2007. Key words: Behçet’ s disease, Leeds activity score, MMP-2, MMP-9, aneurysm. Competing interests: none declared. ABSTRACT Objectives. Basic and clinical stud- ies have revealed a strong correla- tion between matrix metalloprotein- ases (MMPs), particularly MMP-2 and MMP-9, and the formation of abdomi- nal aortic aneurysms. In addition, pre- vious studies have clearly shown that MMP-2 and MMP-9 play an important role in the pathogenesis of vasculitis characterized by aneurysm formation such as Kawasaki disease, temporal ar- teritis and Takayasu arteritis. Depend- ing on those findings, we hypothesized that circulating MMP-2 and MMP-9 could be useful markers to demonstrate vascular aneurysmatic involvement in patients with Behçet’ s disease (BD). ’ s disease (BD). ’ Methods. Fifty-eight patients with BD, and 20 healthy controls were enrolled in the study. We assessed the disease ac- tivity of patients according to the Leeds activity score system. We compared the Leeds activity scores of patients with their serum levels of MMP2 and MMP- 9. Patients with BD were categorized as active (total activity score ≥ 5) or inac- tive (total activity score < 5). Patients were further categorized with respect to their extent of involvement as muco- cutaneous or systemic. Patients with systemic involvement were subdivided into ocular or vascular involvement. Patients with vascular involvement were subgrouped as thrombotic or an- eurysmatic involvement. The levels of MMP-2 and MMP-9 were measured by ELISA. Results. Serum MMP-9 but not MMP- 2 levels were significantly higher both in patients with active and inactive dis- ease as compared to healthy controls (p = 0.008 and 0.013 respectively). We found positive correlation between Leeds activity score and serum MMP-2 serum MMP-2 levels in patients with vascular involve- ment (p (p ( = 0.035 and r = 0.485), and serum MMP-9 levels in active BD pa- tients (p (p ( = 0.003 and r = 0.599). The serum levels of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in patients with systemic involvement were higher than those of healthy controls but not patients with mucocutaneous involvement (p = 0.046 and 0.002 re- spectively). The serum levels of MMP-2 in patients with vascular involvement were found to be higher than those of healthy controls and patients with mu- cocutaneous involvement (p = 0.001 and 0.003, respectively) but not differ- ent in those with ocular involvement. The serum levels of MMP-9 in patients with vascular involvement were found to be higher than those of healthy con- trols and ocular disease (p = 0.001 and 0.033 respectively) but not different in those with mucocutaneous involvement. The serum levels of MMP-2 in patients with aneurysmatic involvement were found to be higher than those of healthy controls, mucocutaneous and ocular involvement (p = 0.004, 0.008 and 0.004 respectively). The serum levels of MMP-2 in patients with thrombotic involvement were found to be higher than those of healthy controls and mu- cocutaneous (p = 0.018 and 0.033 re- spectively) but not ocular involvement. The serum levels of MMP-9 in patients with aneurysmatic involvement were found to be higher than those of healthy controls, mucocutaneous and ocular involvement (p = 0.001, 0.048 and 0.007 respectively). The serum levels of MMP-9 in patients with thrombotic involvement were found to be higher than those of healthy controls but not mucocutaneous and ocular involvement (p = 0.046). Conclusions. We concluded that serum MMP-2 and MMP-9 levels can be used as an activity indicator for vasculo- Behçet’ s or active Beh ’ s or active Beh ’ çet’ s patients, ’ s patients, ’ respectively. But they can not be used Serum MMP-2 and MMP-9 in patients with Behçet’ s disease: Do their higher levels correlate to vasculo-Behçet’ s disease associated with aneurysm formation? S. Pay 1 , T. Abbasov 2 , H. Erdem 1 , U. Musabak 3 , I. Simsek 1 , A. Pekel 3 , A. Akdogan 4 , A. Sengul 2 , A. Dinc 1