BACKGROUND/AIMS Recent studies documented that sensitization and exposure to cockroach allergens significantly increase children's asthma morbidity as well as severity, especially among inner city children. TNF-alpha has been postulated to be a critical mediator directly contributing to the bronchopulmonary inflammation and airway hyper-responsiveness in asthma. This study investigated whether ...

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is known to play a critical role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Etanercept is a recombinant soluble fusion protein of TNF alpha type II receptor and IgG, which acts as a specific TNF-alpha antagonist. Anti-TNF-alpha therapy has been an important advance in the treatment of RA. However, induction of autoantibodies in some proportion of patients trea...

Background: Osteoporosis is common in spondyloarthritis, due to reduced spinal mobility, and inflammation. Anti-inflammatory treatments have a beneficial effect on the bone, there significant increase bone density during treatment with anti-TNF alpha. Objectives: study mineral patients ankylosing spondyloarthritis (AS) treated Methods: This retrospective descriptive of AS meeting modified New Y...

Background: Periodontitis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) share a number of clinical and pathologic features, one of which is the presence of the tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α)-induced bone resorption that is involved in the pathogenesis of both. Objectives: To investigate the effect of TNF-α blockade on periodontal conditions in patients with active RA. Method: The periodontal statuses of 3...

Loss of epithelial barrier integrity is considered an early step in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease (CD), and the rate of enterocyte apoptosis is one of the determinants of the intestinal barrier function. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), one of the major proinflammatory mediators in CD, is one of the extrinsic signals which initiate apoptosis of enterocytes. The aim of this study w...

The membrane TNF-alpha is known to serve as a precursor of the soluble form of TNF-alpha. Although it has been reported the biological functions of the membrane TNF-alpha as a ligand, the outside-to-inside (reverse) signal transmitted through membrane TNF-alpha is poorly understood. Here we report a novel function mediated by outside-to-inside signal via membrane TNF-alpha into the cells expres...

HgCl(2) induces an autoimmune disease in the Brown Norway rat characterized by synthesis of autoantibodies (mainly, anti-GBM Abs), severe proteinuria and interstitial nephritis. Also, HgCl(2)- injected rats develop glomerular cell infiltrates consisting of ED1(+) cells (monocyte/macrophage), starting on day 4 and reaching a maximum on day 8. Treatment with anti-TNF-alpha antiserum had preventat...

The production and role of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) in pneumococcal pneumonia were investigated in a mouse pneumonia model. When approximately 10(6) CFU of Streptococcus pneumoniae TUM19 were used to inoculate CBA/J mice intranasally, TNF-alpha levels in the lungs and serum began to increase from 1 and 3 days after infection, respectively, concomitantly with the increase in bacte...