Ligand engagement by the receptor Fas leads to apoptosis. A clue to how this happens comes from the discovery that ligand binding leads to recruitment to Fas of a protease, homologous to interleukin-1 beta converting enzyme, likely to initiate a proteolytic cascade that drives apoptosis.

The interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL1Ra) family of molecules now includes one secreted isoform (sIL1Ra) and three intracellular isoforms (icIL1Ra1, 2, and 3). Extensive evidence indicates that the sole biological function of sIL1Ra seems to be to competitively inhibit IL1 binding to cell-surface receptors. Although intracellular IL1Ra1 may be released from keratinocytes under some conditio...

background: endometriosis is a frequent gynecologic disease with a severe impact on the quality of life in the affected women; its pathogenesis is yet to be fully understood, with an altered immunity as a possible key factor. the present study aimed to investigate the serum anti-inflammatory cytokine profile in the patients with endometriosis compared with the healthy controls. materials and me...

A shock-like syndrome was induced in rabbits by administering toxic-shock-syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1); tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-like activity was detected in sera of rabbits 3.5 h after injection, as measured by cytotoxic effects on the tumorigenic L929 murine fibroblast cell line. Appearance of this activity in sera coincided with onset of significant shock-related hemodynamic changes. TSST-1...