Local Injection of Growth Hormone for Temporomandibular Joint Osteoarthritis.

Purpose: Osteoarthritis (OA) of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) elicits cartilage and subchondral bone defects. Growth hormone (GH) promotes chondrocyte growth. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of intra-articular injections of GH to treat TMJ-OA.

Potentiation of Fas- and TRAIL-mediated apoptosis by IFN-gamma in A549 lung epithelial cells: enhancement of caspase-8 expression through IFN-response element.

Epithelial cell apoptosis triggered cooperatively by multiple cytokines contributes to the injury induced by inflammatory responses in the lung and elsewhere. Here we show that interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) sensitizes A549 cells, human lung epithelial cells, to cytokine-mediated apoptosis by upregulating caspase-8 expression. Pretreating the cells with IFN-gamma potentiated Fas- and TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL)-induced cell death, but other forms of apoptosis, not mediated via receptors, were unaffected.