Reverse zymography is a sensitive method which can detect
several inhibitors at the same time, both characterized inhibitors such as the TIMPs as well as novel ones. If a fluorescently labeled substrate is used, the substrate degradation can
be followed “real-time” and analyses will not suffer from
artifacts that may be produced by protein staining [34, 35].Therefore, to be able to determine enzyme activity in a tissue,
several methods should ideally be combined. This is often not
possible, and in most studies on diagnostic and prognostic
values of MMPs or TIMPs, only one detection method has
been applied. This must be taken into account when
evaluating studies regarding diagnostic and prognostic
values of MMPs.