author(s)
Balamurugan TC and Prakash Krupakaran R

abstract
The proposed study was carried out to detect the presence of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in serum of native goat breed of Tamil Nadu ‘Kodi adu’. Four adult male and female Kodi breed of goats were selected. On gelatin zymogram reveals that the presence of three prominent bands at 92 kDa of MMP-9 and 72 and 62 kDa of MMP-2 were clearly observed in both the sexes. 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 62 kDa of MMP-2 was 2-4 times higher than 82 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 and 220 kDa of MMP-9 were also observed. Both latent form of 72 kDa MMP-2 and active form of 62 kDa MMP-2 observed as thicker bands and they showed maximum gelatinolytic activity as compared to marker. In addition, the 82 kDa of MMP-9 was also observed in female animals. It was concluded that there was no significant difference between the expression of MMP-9 and MMP-2 in both the sexes of Kodi goats. But the existence of active of 82 kDa of MMP-9 was observed in female animals. It was obvious that 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 widespread role in tissue remodeling and extra cellular degradation.