Several epidemiological studies have demonstrated that collagenase-2 (MMP-8) and matrilysin-1 (MMP-7) are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease [14,15,30,31,32,33]; however, few studies that have investigated the association of the combined genetic effect from collagenase-2 (MMP-8) and matrilysins (MMP-7 and MMP-26) with risk of ischemic stroke. Here, MMP7 is linked to ischemic stroke.