Consistent with our own observations and supporting a detrimental role for MMP-12 in AAA, whole body deletion of MMP-12 reduced aneurysm growth elicited through adventitial CaCl2 application to wild-type mice, as evidenced by reduced elastin fragmentation and aortic dilation, in comparison to untreated control animals [26]. This evidence concerns the gene MMP12 and triple-A syndrome.