MMP9 and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Similar analyses of the MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratio revealed a significant association with increasing pack years in both non-COPD and COPD, while the association with increasing age was border-line significant in non-COPD (p = 0.051) as was decreasing FEV1% predicted in COPD (p = 0.051) (Table 5).