Thirty steroid resistant nephrotic children aging from 2–17 yrs (with a mean 7.58 yr4.09) underwent renal biopsies which were stained for apoptotic bodies by DNA in-situ. MMP-9 level in serum was measured by ELISA at the time of biopsy and after 3 months of cyclophosphamide treatment on 2.5 mg/Kg/day PO with oral prednisolone on 2 mg/Kg every other day. Apoptosis showed a highly significant correlation with the different pathologies (p< 0.01) being highest with FSGS. MMP-9 level didn’t correlate with apoptosis or with the pathological type of kidney lesions but correlated well with the activity of SRNS and its resistance to treatment (p <0.05).These data are consistent with other researches suggesting the proinflammatory role of MMP-9 and proposing the use of TIMPs in the future as adjunct treatment of hard cases of SRNS.