MMP9 and sarcoidosis: As shown in Fig. 4c, real-time PCR evaluation of MMP-9 gene expression by purified AMs demonstrated that MMP-9 mRNA expression levels were higher in freshly isolated AMs from patients with active sarcoidosis (10.17 ± 4.2) compared with the corresponding AMs from patients with the inactive form of the disease (1.93 ± 0.89; p < 0.01 vs active disease).