Table 3.

Comparison of TIMP-1mRNA, MMP-1mRNA and TIMP-1mRNA/MMP-1mRNA in PBMCs between patients and healthy controls (¯x ± s)

Group (n)	TIMP-1mRNA	MMP-1mRNA	TIMP-1mRNA/ MMP-1mRNA
Patients (60)	1.05 ± 0.69b	0.39 ± 0.36	4.77 ± 3.78a
Controls (20)	0.40 ± 0.19	0.24 ± 0.11	1.71 ± 0.89
t	2.934	0.741	2.514
P	0.005	0.462	0.016

There was a statistically significant difference compared with the control group

^aP < 0.05,

^bP < 0.01.