author(s)
Balamurugan TC and Prakash Krupakaran R

abstract
This study was carried out to identify the presence of gelatinases viz MMP-2 and MMP-9 in serum of Kilakarisal sheep, a native sheep breed of Tamil Nadu. Four adult male and female native sheep breed Kilakarisal sheep was selected. On gelatin zymogram reveals that the presence of four prominent bands at 220, 92 kDa of MMP-9 and 72 and 62 kDa of MMP-2 were clearly observed for all the animals. All the four 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, 220 homodimer or MMP-9 was also observed. Further, in Kilakarisal sheep showed maximum gelatinolytic activity as compared to marker by showing more intensity in 62 kDa of MMP-2. In addition, the 82 kDa of MMP-9 was also observed. It was concluded that there was no significant difference between the expression of MMP-9 and MMP-2 in both the sexes. But Further, there is more up regulation of MMP-2 mediated through MMP-9 activity observed in all animals. It was inferred that the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 were to be correlated with physiological and reproductive status of individual animal since MMP played extensive role in tissue remodeling and extra cellular degradation.