Cell culture COS 1 and HeLa cells were cultured in Dulbeccos modi

Cell culture COS 1 and HeLa cells were cultured in Dulbeccos modi fied Eagles medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine selleckbio serum. SW480 cells were cultured in Leibovitzs L 15 medium supplemented with 10% FBS. P19 cells were maintained in alpha minimum essential medium supplemented with 7. 5% bovine serum and 2. 5% FBS. All cells were main tained at 37 C under a 5% CO2 atmosphere. To induce P19 cells differentiation, cells were allowed to aggregate in bacterial grade Petri dishes at a seeding density of 1 �� 105 cells ml in the presence of 1 uM all trans RA. After 4 days of aggregation, cells were dissociated into single cells by trypsin EDTA, and were plated in a poly L lysine coated tissue culture dish at a density of 1 �� 105 cells cm2 in NeurobasalTM A medium with a 1�� B27 supplement.

Cells were allowed to attach for 24 h, and then were exposed to 10 uM Ara C 24 h to inhibit proliferation of non neuronal cells. Antibodies The following antibodies were used for the Western blot, immunoprecipitation, and immunofluorescence analyses, Plzf, HA, Flag and EGFP. The polyclonal Znf179 antibodies were generated against a synthetic peptide corresponding to C terminal amino acids 634 654 of mouse Znf179. Immunoprecipitation For testing the association of Znf179 and Plzf in mam malian cells, EGFP Znf179 were co transfected with Flag Plzf construct into HeLa cells. Forty eight hours after transfection, cells were solubilized in 1 ml of lysis buffer, containing 50 mM Tris HCl, 150 mM NaCl, 15 mM EDTA, 0. 5% Triton X 100, 0. 5% Nonidet P 40, and 0.

1% sodium deoxycholate and CompleteTM Protease Inhibitor Cocktail. Whole cell lysates were mixed with antiserum against Flag, and the immunocomplexes were mixed with protein A Sepharose beads. After 2 h incubation, the immunocomplexes were then gently washed three times with the same buffer as described above followed by Western blot analysis with the anti Flag and anti EGFP antibodies. Immunofluorescence Cells were fixed for 15 min with 4% formaldehyde in phosphate buffered saline and then permeabilized with cold acetone. Antibodies were then incubated with fixed cells for 4 h at room temperature. Cells were washed three times with PBS followed by incubation with a secondary antibody for 1 h at room temperature. Nuclei were revealed by ProLong Gold antifade reagent with DAPI.

Coverslips were inverted, mounted on slides, and sealed with nail polish. Pictures were taken using Anacetrapib fluorescence microscopy. Transfection and reporter activity assays Transfection grade DNA is prepared using PurelinkTM HiPure kits. All of the transfections were performed by using Lipofectamine 2000TM. After 24 h, cell lysates were prepared and reporter activ ities were measured by the Dual Luciferase Reporter kit. The assay was performed according to man ufacturers recommendations, and luciferase activity was measured with Triathler Multilabel Tester 1. 9.

After 48 hrs incubation cells were collected and analyzed for TCF

After 48 hrs incubation cells were collected and analyzed for TCF LEF activity using a dual luciferase assay kit. TCF LEF activation values are expressed as arbitrary units using a Renilla reporter for internal normalization. Ex periments were done in duplicate, and the standard de viations are indicated. Cabozantinib buy s with protein translocation into the endoplasmic reticulum where secretory proteins ma ture into a functional three dimensional conformation be fore they are packaged into ER to Golgi transport vesicles. Proteins that fail to fold in the ER are not allowed to enter these vesicles, and are initially retained in the ER. Most are subsequently exported to the cytosol and de graded by proteasomes, a process called ER associated degradation.

In yeast proteins are imported co translationally into the ER through a proteinaceous channel formed by the Sec61 complex. This hetero trimeric complex consists of the channel forming Sec61 protein, and two small proteins, Sss1p and Sbh1p, which stabilize the channel and mediate interactions with other protein complexes. During posttranslational import into the yeast ER the Sec61 channel collaborates with the heterotetrameric Sec63 complex forming the heptameric Sec complex. In yeast transmembrane proteins follow the co translational pathway, whereas soluble proteins are imported into the ER posttranslationally, and a few primarily ER resident soluble proteins can use both pathways. Hydrophobi city of the signal sequence determines the mode of trans location, with more hydrophobic sequences leading to co translational import.

The Sec61 channel also plays a role in export of misfolded soluble and transmembrane proteins from the ER as part of a large and likely dynamic complex consisting of an ER resident ubiquitin ligase and its accessory proteins, the Sec61 channel, Sec63p, but not the other subunits of the Sec63 complex, and the prote asome 19S regulatory particle. Sec61p forms the protein translocation channel which during protein import is almost certainly formed by a single Sec61 complex. Sec61p consists of 10 trans membrane domains with both termini in the cytoplasm, and two large loops, L6 and L8, protruding from the cytoplasmic side of the membrane. On the ER lumenal side there is only one large loop, L7. Cytoplasmic L6 and L8 are important for binding to the ribosome during cotranslational im port into the ER.

The structures of the yeast and mammalian Sec61 complexes have so far only been stud ied by electron microscopy. In the crystal structures of the Sec61 channel orthologue from Archaea, the SecY complex, the 10 transmembrane helices of SecY form a funnel shaped bundle with a hydrophobic constriction in the center of the channel. Cytosolic loops 6 and 8 can be seen clearly protruding from the extracellular Dacomitinib face of the membrane.

We did not

We did not selleck chemicals Tofacitinib observe expression in germ cell precursors or any other germ cells possibly due to silencing of concatamer transgenes in the germ inal gonad. An unexpected finding from our analysis was tissue specific expression of SAC genes in late L4 and adults that contain no somatic cells destined to divide. Consid ering that tissue specificity observed in these stages was similar to the tissue specificity observed in larval stages, it is possible that the observed patterns reflect longer turnover times for the GFP carried over from earlier lar val stages. On the other hand, it is possible that 5 upstream sequences used in our analysis do not include important repressor elements that are required for proper expression of SAC genes. Alternatively, it may be that SAC genes have roles in these adult tissues that remain to be uncovered.

We have found that spindle checkpoint genes reveal an intriguing co expression in hypodermal seam cells. This finding prompted us to use the seam cell lineage to test the functional importance of the checkpoint for proper postembryonic cell proliferation. Here, we demonstrated that the knockout allele, tm2190, of mdf 2 results in defective seam cell development that is mainly attributed to seam cell proliferation failure at L2. In the absence of MDF 2, on average 14 seam cell nuclei were observed instead of expected 16. The number of SCM, GFP nuclei per side of an animal ranges from 8 to 19 in the absence of MDF 2. While the majority of the mdf 2 homozygotes contains less than expected 16 seam cell nuclei per side in young adults, we also observed animals that had more than 16 seam cell nuclei, which could be attributed to defective cell division.

The results presented in this paper provide the first evidence that embryonic cell divisions are more tolerant to the loss of SAC, in particular MDF 2, than postembryonic cell divisions, as determined using the seam cell lineage. Furthermore, we show that the impor tance of MDF 2 for proper seam cell proliferation depends on its regulation of APC CCDC20. The seam cell defect in mdf 2 homozygotes cannot be explained by cell damage followed by caspase dependent apoptotic cell death, since ced 3 mutant had no effect on seam cell defect in mdf 2 worms. Furthermore, fzy 1 rescued all of the mdf 2 phenotypes, except for the brood size.

On the other hand, G1 phase regulators, LIN 35 and FZR 1, when defective affect only brood size in the absence of MDF 2. The analysis presented here, using the mdf 2, serves as an excellent model for further studies on effects of a defective Cilengitide SAC on develop ment of different tissues in a multicellular organism. A striking emerging pattern is that essentially all SAC genes are expressed in intestine and hypodermis. SAC components MDF 2 and MDF 1 have previously been observed to be localized to gut cells by using anti body staining.

To better characterize

To better characterize protein inhibitor the inflammatory response in microglia we additionally examined the activation of the upstream I B kinase experimentally. The time course of IKK activity was measured for the first 30 min following 10 ng ml TNFa treatment in three identical experiments. IKK is rapidly activated, reaching peak levels near 5 min. By 10 min IKK activity sharply drops to below half maximal levels and gradually declines to near basal levels over the next 20 min. This transient profile resembles IKK activation characteristic of the response in most other cell types to high TNFa doses, in which IKK activity peaks between 5 15 min and drops below 25% of its maximal value by 30 min. However, the rapid decline from maximum activity at 5 min to 33% activity by 10 min is particu larly prominent in microglia.

Intermediate steps in the IKK induced I Ba degradation pathway reconcile the mathematical model with NF B activation in microglia Next we sought to quantitatively describe microglial NF B activation using a mathematical model. While a num ber of mathematical models for NF B have been pub lished in recent years, our preference was to begin with a simple description that still captures the essential components of the network. For this pur pose we selected a deterministic, ordinary differential equation model structure recently published by Ashall et al, which was based primarily on an earlier model by Lipniacki et al. This model includes the core architecture of the canonical signaling pathway and was able to predict many key features of NF B activa tion in different cell types under a variety of conditions.

We first attempted to identify parameters for the exist ing model structure to fit the experimental NF B and T IKK activation profiles of microglia. An optimization based parameter estimation algorithm was run using many randomly selected parameter values from the para meter space as initial guesses. However, no parameter sets were found that matched microglial IKK and NF B activity. In particular, the model was unable to qualita tively reproduce the rapid induction and attenuation of IKK activity observed in microglia for any of the para meter sets tested, and NF B activation was predicted to occur more rapidly than the 5 min delay observed in Figure 2A. The discrepancies between the model and data prompted us to investigate the time interval imme diately following TNFa stimulus.

Sensitivity analyses were performed on the model to quantify the relative contributions of each of the system parameters to the concentration of free NF B during the first 10 min given the large mismatches between the model and data in this interval. Only seven of the origi nal 26 system parameters have appreciable Cilengitide effects on NF B activity during this time based on their time averaged sensitivity scores.

The average recov ery rate in case of

The average recov ery rate in case of Temsirolimus chemical structure drug repositioning candidates gener ated by ClusterONE was 95% while in case of Louvain clustering it was 85%. This demonstrates that the drug repositioning candidates we have discovered are robust and that additional edge removal or addition will not affect the output significantly. Drug repositioning candidates and literature based evaluation From the 98 clusters found by Louvain clustering, 11160 drug repositioning candidates were generated. In case of 110 ClusterONE generated clus ters, 2518 drug repositioning candidates were extracted. There were 2501 drug repositioning candidates found by both of the cluster ing approaches. We used these pairs to perform a literature based and clinical trials search using CoPub and a carefully designed PubMed search using NCBIs E Utilities feature.

In the Figure 2 we show the modules which con tained drug repositioning pairs with literature evidence. In the fol lowing sections we discuss two case studies wherein our discovered drug repositioning candidates matched with those in clinical trials and literature. Vismodegib and Gorlin syndrome Two of the drug repositioning candidates in our results that overlapped with the literature reports and clinical trials were derived from a cluster with drugs vismodegib and erismodegib and diseases basal cell carcinoma and Gorlin syndrome. Interestingly, vismodegib, an oral inhibitor of the hedgehog pathway, is the first drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administra tion for the treatment of locally advanced and metastatic BCC.

Additionally, another study reported the efficacy of vismodegib on patients with Gorlin syndrome, a rare autosomal dominant disorder in which those with the disease are prone to developing multiple BCCs at an early age. In our ana lyses, vismodegib and Gorlin syndrome do not share a common gene but are still clustered together because of the pathway based connectivity. This demonstrates the utility of our approach in using feature based heterogeneous networks to identify drug repositioning candidates. g secretase inhibitors, NSAID, Alzheimers and Hidradenitis suppurativa Another interesting set of examples in our study were related to Alzheimers disease and g secretase inhi bitors and NSAID which have been shown as potent reducers of levels of b amyloid.

In our study, AD and hidradenitis suppurativa Drug_discovery were clustered along with the g secretase inhibitors and tarenflurbil. Since several studies have further info implicated b amyloid peptides in the etiology of Alzheimers disease and because Ab is pro duced by the proteolytic cleavage of the amyloid precur sor protein by b and g secretase, g secretase inhibition is thought to have a therapeutic benefit for AD. How ever, all these drugs failed in phase III trials because they either worsened cognition and/or increased the risk of skin cancer.

3 cells Pharmacological approaches suggest that tar geting CO 2

3 cells. Pharmacological approaches suggest that tar geting CO 2 PGE2 system and their upstream signaling components should yield useful therapeutic targets for brain injury and inflammatory diseases. Methods Materials Dulbeccos modified Eagles medium F 12 medium, fetal bovine serum, and TRIzol were from Invitrogen. Hybond C membrane and enhanced chemiluminescence Western blot detection system selleck AZD9291 were from GE Healthcare Biosciences. Anti CO 2 monoclonal anti body was from BD Transduction Laboratories. Phospho ERK1 2, phospho p38, phospho JNK1 2 antibody kits were from Cell Signaling. p65, p42, p38, and JNK1 antibodies were from Santa Cruz. Anti glyceraldehyde 3 phosphate dehydrogenase antibody was from Biogenesis. BQ 123, BQ 788, GP antagonist 2, GP antagonist 2A, U0126, SB202190, SP600125, and Bay11 7082 were from Biomol.

Bicinchoninic acid protein assay reagent was from Pierce. ET 1, enzymes, and other chemicals were from Sigma. Mouse brain microvascular endothelial cell culture Mouse brain microvascular endothelial cells were purchased from Bioresource Collection and Re search Centre and grew in DMEM F 12 containing 10% FBS and antibiotics at 37 C in a humidified 5% CO2 atmos phere. The cell line is acquired from mouse BALB c strain brain cerebral corte endothelial polyoma middle T antigen transformed, which was performed STR PCR profile at BCRC. All the e periments were performed using this cell line and approved by the ethic approval of Chang Gung University. Confluencent cells were released with 0. 05% trypsin 0. 53 mM EDTA for 5 min at 37 C.

The cell suspension was plated onto 6 well culture plates or 10 cm culture dishes for the measurement of pro tein or RNA e pression, respectively. Culture medium was changed after 24 h and then every 3 days. E peri ments were performed with cells from passages 5 to 13. Preparation of cell e tracts and Western blot analysis Growth arrested cells were incubated with ET 1 at 37 C for various time intervals. The cells were washed with ice cold phosphate buffered saline, scraped, and collected by centrifugation at 45,000 g for 1 h at 4 C to yield the whole cell e tract, as previously described. Samples were analyzed by Western Brefeldin_A blot, transferred to nitrocellulose membrane, and then incubated over night using an anti CO 2, phospho ERK1 2, phospho p38 MAPK, phospho JNK1 2, p42, p38, JNK1, p65, or GAPDH antibody.

Membranes were washed with TTBS four times for 5 min each, incubated with a 1 2000 dilu tion of anti rabbit horseradish pero idase antibody for 1 h. The immunoreactive bands were detected by ECL reagents. Total RNA e traction and gene e pression For reverse transcription PCR analysis, total Vandetanib chemical structure RNA was e tracted from mouse brain endothelial cells stimulated by ET 1, as previously described. The cDNA obtained from 0. 5 ug total RNA was used as a template for PCR amplification.

SIRT1 regulates MMP7 e pression through deacetylating Smad4 Prev

SIRT1 regulates MMP7 e pression through deacetylating Smad4 Previous studies have suggested that Smad4 may regulate MMP7 e pression in cancer, and we therefore e amined the effect of transiently silencing Smad4 in oral squamous carcinoma cells by transfected siRNA. Our results showed that MMP7 mRNA e pression reduced, and a similar result was seen in a Western blot e periment. SIRT1 silencing significantly downregulated MMP7 protein e pression in both OSCC cell lines. We then collected and concentrated cell culture media from Smad4 silencing cells. A subsequent ELISA analysis of the media showed that MMP7 secretion was signifi cantly decreased in siSmad4 OSCC cells compared with secretion in scrambled control OSCC cells.

Assays of MMP7 concentrations and activity by casein zymography and ELISA revealed that MMP7 activity in the media from the siSmad4 OECM1 and HSC3 cells was significantly lower than that in the media of control cells, and a similar result was shown by studies of MMP7 concentration. These e periments showed that Smad4 regu lates and is required for MMP7 e pression, secretion, and activity in oral cancer. To address whether the SIRT1 regulation of MMP7 e pression was modulated via the TGF B transcription factor Smad4, we monitored MMP7 e pression in SIRT1 overe pressing OECM1 and HSC3 cells following their stimulation with TGF B. As shown in Figure 7A and Additional file 2 Figure S2A, TGF B stimu lation increased Smad4 e pression and hyperacetylation of Smad4 in both OSCC cell lines.

Additionally, TGF B also induced e pression of MMP7, which became hypere pressed when Smad4 was hyperacetylated following TGF B stimulation. Ne t, we ectopically e pressed SIRT1 in OECM1 and HSC3 cell lines, and found that overe pres sion of SIRT1 in OSCC cells led to both decreased levels of Smad4 acetylation, and repressed affects of TGF B sig naling on MMP7. TGF Brefeldin_A B induces MMP7 e pression which results in e tracellular cleavage of E cadherin from the cell surface, and disruption of E cadherin. Therefore, we also tested the effect of E cadherin e pression in SIRT1 overe pressing cells after they had been pre treated with TGF B. Interestingly, while TGF B reduced E cadherin levels in both mock transfected cells and SIRT1 overe pressing OSCC cells, the reductions were much greater in SIRT1 overe pressing cells.

Similarly, MMP7 activity in mock transfected cells was markedly increased by TGF B stimulation. In contrast, overe pression of SIRT1 in oral cancer cells caused a significant reduction of MMP7 activity, while TGF B stimulation was slightly reversed the increase in MMP7 activity. This change was closely related to the deacetylation levels of Smad4, and might be responsible for the reduced efficiency of TGF B signaling in regulating MMP7 e pression.

Loss of aortic SMC through apoptosis is a prominent fea ture of A

Loss of aortic SMC through apoptosis is a prominent fea ture of AAA disease. The similarity in basal apoptosis we observed between aneurysmal and non aneurysmal SMC concurs with a previous report where no differences were observed between AAA and matched inferior mesen teric artery SMC cultured under standard conditions. However, we noted significantly augmented apoptosis in AAA SMC upon e posure to staurosporine. It is conceiv able that in AAA disease, SMC apoptosis in vivo may be at tributable to a heightened sensitivity to apoptotic stimuli in a significant proinflammatory environment, rather than a difference in basal apoptosis levels. Accelerated vascular aging, cell senescence and syn thetic SMC phenotypes have been documented in AAA patients or those with risk factors for AAA.

Another common feature of aged cells is that of telo mere shortening and this has been demonstrated in both AAA SMC and leucocytes of patients with AAA. Rhomboid SMC are more commonly reported in pathological states and there is speculation that aging causes a general switch towards a synthetic phenotype in vascular SMC. Aging has been demonstrated to alter SMC proliferation in a variety of ways depending on source and model, and also to modulate the prolifer ative response to growth factors or cytokines. In keeping with this concept, we also noted differential sen escence between PCA vehicle treated and CCE SMC, and likewise between human SV and AAA SMC. It is reasonable to suggest that the SMC phenotypes we iden tify in both the human AAA and porcine CCE are indi cative of accelerated aging.

Another defining feature of end stage AAA disease is breakdown of the ECM, with marked degradation of elastin fibres. In addition, collagenase activity is ele vated in AAA tissue. Evidence from pathological specimens suggests that loss of elastin is an early event mediated by SMC and is associated with production of MMP 2 from SMC themselves. Elevated e pression levels of both MMP 2 mRNA and protein have been reported in human and animal AAA tissue. The observed deficiencies in PCA SMC morphology and proliferation after CCE treatment were also evident at the level of MMP 2 secretion in which we observed, contrary to previous reports, that both basal and phorbol ester Entinostat stimulated secretion of MMP 2 from CCE SMC was significantly lower than from VEH SMC.

The unpaired nature of AAA SMC and SV SMC precluded a direct comparison between them although we noted that absolute levels of MMP 2 secretion from AAA SMC were consistently lower than from equivalent densities of SV SMC under identical conditions. Inter estingly, a study using tissue biopsies from the UK Small Aneurysm Trial concluded that MMP 2 may only play an etiopathogenic role in small aneurysms and moreover, significant quantities were bound to the ECM.

The results showed that the e pression level of ISL 1 was amelior

The results showed that the e pression level of ISL 1 was ameliorated appro imately 7 folds in ISL 1 overe pressed Raji cells and around 2. 7 folds in ISL 1 overe pressed Ly3 and Jurkat cells, while the level of ISL 1 was attenuated to less than 10% in ISL 1 knockdown Ly3 and Jurkat cells, indicating that both overe pression and knockdown cell lines are successfully established. When ISL 1 protein level was up or down regulated, notable promotion or inhibition of cell growth were observed in corresponding cell lines. To further determine the role of ISL 1 on proliferation of NHL cells, the cell cycle profiles were analyzed. Compared with the control, Raji, Ly3 and Jurkat cells with ISL 1 overe pression showed a decreased cell population in G1 phase and a remarkably increased cell population in the S and G2 M phases.

Conversely, Ly3 and Jurkat cells with ISL 1 knockdown e hibited an increase in the proportion of cells in G1 phase and a decrease in the proportion of cells in S and G2 M phases. These results indicate that ISL 1 could significantly change the cell cycle dynamics and thus promote NHL cells proliferation. To further confirm whether ISL 1 could promote tumor growth in vivo, we used the SCID mice enograft model to study the impact of ISL 1 on NHL genesis and develop ment. We found that the initiation and the growth of tumor were significantly earlier and faster with ISL 1 overe pressing cells than those with the control cells. Conversely, the tumor growth was obvi ously impaired with ISL 1 knockdown cells. After the last measurement, the tumors were isolated and weighed.

The ISL 1 overe pressing cells produced significantly larger and heavier tumors than Dacomitinib the control cells, in contrast, the ISL 1 knockdown cells produced smaller and lighter tumors compared with the control cells. We further compared the e pression of ISL 1 in the tumor tissues isolated from the mice. As shown in Figure 3E, the protein level of ISL 1 in the tumors was positively correlated with the tumor volumes in each group. Therefore, our animal e periments confirm that ISL 1 potentiates NHL growth in vivo. Collectively, in vitro and in vivo results indicate that overe pression of ISL 1 promotes NHL cells proliferation and enhances lymphoma development, whereas knock down of ISL 1 attenuates NHL cells proliferation and inhibits enograft growth. ISL 1 stimulates NHL cell proliferation through the up regulation of c Myc e pression To e plore the mechanism of ISL 1 stimulated NHL cell proliferation, bioinformatic analysis was performed with professional MatInspector software and refFlat Database to identify the downstream target genes of ISL 1.

Introduction In rheumatoid arthritis joints synovial hyperplasia

Introduction In rheumatoid arthritis joints synovial hyperplasia and inflammatory cell infiltration lead to progressive destruc tion of cartilage and bone. Although the mechanisms under lying synovial hyperplasia are not completely known, accumulating evidence suggests that alterations in the apop tosis of synoviocytes are pivotal. Interestingly, RA fibroblast like synoviocytes express death receptors. yet, they are relatively resistant to FasL, TNF, and tumor necrosis related apoptosis inducing ligand induced apoptosis. This resistance has been related to high expression of anti apop totic molecules such as Fas associated death domain like IL1 beta converting enzyme inhibitory protein , sentrin 1, Bcl 2, Mcl 1, and constitu tive activation of Akt.

Apoptosis is a process highly regulated and crucial in many physiological situations, and could involve two main pathways. the extrinsic, by activation of death receptors, and the intrinsic or mitochondrial pathway. In the extrinsic pathway, FasL, TNF, and TRAIL ligation leads to recruitment of Fas associated via death domain and procaspase 8, which form the death inducing signaling complex, where caspase 8 is activated. In turn, caspase 8 activates caspase 3, which causes DNA fragmentation and cell death. The mitochondrial pathway is induced by hypoxia, cytotoxic drugs and growth factor deprivation leading to liberation of cytochrome c and Apaf 1 mediated activation of the caspase 9. This pathway is tightly regulated by members of the Bcl 2 family with anti apoptotic function, such as Bcl 2, Bcl xL, Bcl w, Mcl 1, and A1, which prevent mitochondrial mem brane permeability and release of cyt c.

In contrast, other Bcl family members, such as Bax, Bak, Bok, BH3 interact ing domain death agonist, Bad, Bim, and Puma, are pro apoptotic and promote mitochondrial membrane per meability. In some cell types, named type II cells, the two apoptotic pathways are connected through the cleavage of Bid by activated Entinostat caspase 8. Truncated Bid translocates to the mitochondria causing release of cyt c and cell death. In contrast, in type I cells, death receptor induced apoptosis is independent of Bid. It seems that both the intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways are involved in arthritis development. There is much evidence implicating the extrinsic pathway and . How ever, support for the role of the intrinsic pathway is scant, although very convincing. For example, mice lacking Bim or Bid develop a severe synovial inflammation and bone destruction in an arthritis model. Also, evidence suggests that RA FLS are type II cells. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the relevance of the intrinsic path way and its connection with the extrinsic pathway in the FLS resistance to apoptosis.