MMP9 and rheumatoid arthritis: It is interesting that none of the other MMPs examined here were associated with mortality after adjusting for MMP-8 levels or age, sex and disease duration, even though all of the MMPs, apart from MMP-2, showed significant correlations with inflammatory and disease severity markers, and the literature on non-RA populations has reported associations of MMP-2, MMP-3 and MMP-9 levels with CVD [19-24].