Mechanism: MMP2 is a zinc-dependent enzymes capable of cleaving components of the extracellular matrix, which belongs to the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family .It is a gelatinase A, 72kDa type IV collagenase which can hydrolyze gelatin under certain conditions. Gelatin zymography is mainly used for the detection of the gelatinases, MMP-2 and MMP-9 and It is extremely sensitive because levels of 10pg of MMP-2 can already be detected. Briefly, various concentrations of MMP2 were denatured by SDS loading buffer, electrophoresed through sodium dodecylsulphate–polyacrylamide gel (SDS–PAGE; 10% gels) containing gelatin (1 mg/mL) with nonreducing conditions. After renaturation, incubation and CCB-stained, active MMP2 would hydrolyze gelatin nearby, which was indicated by the white binds on the gel. In this experiment we use heat-denatured MMP2 protein as negative control, and blood sample as positive control .
Result: Gelatin hydrolysis by recombinant mouse MMP2 was shown in figure 1.
Figure 1. Hydrolysis of gelatin by recombinant mouse MMP2.