Asahara H, Hasunuma T, Obata T, Sumida T, Nishioka K
Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, St. Marianna University School of Medicine.
Nihon Rinsho. 1996 Jul;54(7):1960-4.
Expression of Fas antigen and Fas ligand (-L) were observed in synovial tissue from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, whereas in only a few cells expressed these molecule osteoarthritis synovial tissue. Fas-L was expressed on CD45RO, CD4, CD8 or CD56 positive cells in RA synovial tissue. Moreover, 10 to 30% of synovial cells expressing Fas antigen were observed to be identical with apoptotic synovial cells and Fas expression was closely related to c-fos and c-myc. These findings suggest that activated T cells and natural killer cells infiltrating into the RA synovium may play an important role in the induction of apoptosis of RA synovial cells through Fas/Fas-L interactions.
