The matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play a key role in the normal physiology of
connective tissue during development, morphogenesis and wound healing, but their
unregulated activity has been implicated in numerous disease processes including arthritis,
tumor cell metastasis and atherosclerosis. An important mechanism for the regulation of the
activity of MMPs is via binding to a family of homologous proteins referred to as the tissue
inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMP-1 to TIMP-4). The two-domain TIMPs are of relatively …