Effects of technetium-99 methylenediphosphonate on cytokine-induced activation of retro-ocular fibroblasts from patients with Graves' ophthalmopathy.

Objective: To explore the effects of technetium-99 methylenediphosphonate (99Tc-MDP) on cell proliferation, hyaluronic acid (HA) synthesis and the expressions of human leucocyte antigen-DR (HLA-DR), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) on cultured retro-ocular fibroblasts (RFs) from patients with Graves' ophthalmopathy.

Methods: After two to seven passages, cultured RFs were incubated for 72 h with interferon-γ (100 U/ml), interleukin-1 (100 U/ml) or tumour necrosis factor-α (100 U/ml) in the presence of 99Tc-MDP. Flow cytometry was used to investigate the expression of HLA-DR and ICAM-1.