MMP2 and triple-A syndrome: Remarkably, CTS dose-dependently suppressed TNF-α-induced protein expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and MMPs (MMP2, 3, and 9), which play critical roles in AAA formation and are mainly responsible for elastin breakdown, in both RAVSMCs (Figure 2A) and MAVSMCs (Figure S2E).