Research Article MMP-2 and MMP-9 Activities and TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 Expression in the Prostatic Tissue of Two Ethanol-Preferring Rat Models Beatriz Aparecida Fioruci-Fontanelli, 1,2 Luiz Gustavo A. Chuffa, 1 Leonardo O. Mendes, 1,2 Patricia Fernanda F. Pinheiro, 1 Flávia Karina Delella, 3 Cilmery S. Kurokawa, 4 Sérgio Luis Felisbino, 3 and Francisco Eduardo Martinez 1 1 Department of Anatomy, Institute of Biosciences, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), 18618-970 Botucatu, SP, Brazil 2 Structural and Cell Biology Program, UNICAMP, 13083-862 Campinas, SP, Brazil 3 Department of Morphology, Institute of Biosciences, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), 18618-970 Botucatu, SP, Brazil 4 Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), 18618-970 Botucatu, SP, Brazil Correspondence should be addressed to Francisco Eduardo Martinez; martinez@ibb.unesp.br Received 7 April 2015; Accepted 29 June 2015 Academic Editor: Andrea Stringer Copyright © 2015 Beatriz Aparecida Fioruci-Fontanelli et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. We investigated whether chronic ethanol intake is capable of altering the MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities and TIMP-2 and TIMP-1 expression in the dorsal and lateral prostatic lobes of low (UChA) and high (UChB) ethanol-preferring rats. MMP-2 and MMP- 9 activities and TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 expression were signifcantly reduced in the lateral prostatic lobe of the ethanol drinking animals. Dorsal prostatic lobe was less afected showing no signifcant alterations in these proteins, except for a reduction in the TIMP-1 expression in UChA rats. Tese important fndings demonstrate that chronic ethanol intake impairs the physiological balance of the prostate extracellular matrix turnover, through downregulation of MMPs, which may contribute to the development of prostatic diseases. Furthermore, since these proteins are also components of prostate secretion, the negative impact of chronic ethanol intake on fertility may also involve reduction of MMPs and TIMPs in the seminal fuid. 1. Introduction Te ethanol alters the epithelial cells [1], the normal stromal- epithelial homeostasis [2], the infammation [3], and the concentration of retinoic acid [4] in the prostate. Tis gland produces and secretes collagenase-like peptidase and gelatinolytic proteinases, such as matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), that are important for reproduction [5–7] and for turnover of the extracellular matrix components (ECM) as collagens, elastins, gelatin, matrix glycoproteins, and proteo- glycan [8–10]. MMP-2 and MMP-9 (gelatinases A and B, resp.) are known to play key roles in tissue remodeling and repair through the degradation of many matrix proteins. Te activity of MMP-2 and MMP-9 is regulated, respectively, by tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases termed TIMP-2 and TIMP-1 [11]. Te imbalance in MMPs/TIMPs ratio is involved in the development of diseases such as arthritis, cancer cell invasion, metastasis, and fbrosis [8, 12]. Ethanol exposure alters this balance and leads to the development of fbrosis in the liver [13] with an excessive deposition of ECM [14]. In addition, ethanol has also been demonstrated to alter MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities in isolated vascular cells and breast cancer cells [15, 16]. Although it is known that the change of MMPs activities and TIMPs expression may result in pathologic alterations and that ethanol modifes the MMPs activity and TIMPs, the MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities in the prostate, as well as levels Hindawi Publishing Corporation Analytical Cellular Pathology Volume 2015, Article ID 954548, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/954548