Existence of gelatinases in goat breeds of Tamil Nadu

A study was undertaken to analyse the gelatinase activity through gelatin zymography in serum of various native goat breeds of Tamil Nadu. Four adult male and female native breeds goat viz. Jamunapari, Kanni, Kodi and Tellicherry were selected. On gelatin zymogram reveals that the presence of three prominent bands at 220, 92 kDa of MMP-9 and 72 kDa of MMP-2 were clearly observed for all goat breeds. All the three forms of MMP are proteolytically active, completely degraded the gelatin. Both latent forms of MMP-2 and MMP-9 were exhibited and the latent bands were observed as thicker bands than the active form. The intensity of 72 kDa of MMP-2 was 2-4 times higher than 92 kDa of MMP-9. The level of expression of 72 kDa of MMP-2 was constant as compared to 92 kDa of MMP-9. In all the groups, 135 homodimer or MMP-9 was also observed. Further, in Kodi and Tellicherry groups showed maximum gelatinolytic activity as compared to marker by showing more intensity in 72 kDa of MMP-2. In addition, the 62 kDa of MMP-2 was also observed. The level of expression of 72 kDa band was constant compared to that 92 KDa. It was concluded that there was no significant difference between the expression of MMP-9 and MMP-2 in both the sexes of each breed. Further, there is more up regulation of MMP-2 mediated through MMP-9 activity observed in goat serum. It was inferred that the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 were to be correlated with reproductive status of individual animal since MMP played extensive role in tissue remodelling and extra cellular degradation.