0000000000243447
AUTHOR
Zygmunt Mackiewicz
Pro-inflammatory, Pleiotropic, and Anti-inflammatory TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-10 in Experimental Porcine Intervertebral Disk Degeneration
The aim of this study was to check the balance between tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and interleukin-10 (IL-10) in well-developed end-stage disk disease in the disk itself as well as in paradiskal spine. In 6 domestic pigs the cranial bony end plate of the L4 vertebra was perforated to the nucleus pulposus. At 3 months the degenerated experimental and contiguous control disks, together with the adjoining bony and cartilaginous vertebral end plates, bone marrow, and spinal ligaments, were excised and used for immunohistochemical analysis. In general, there were more TNF-α and in particular IL-10 positive cells in the degenerated disks than in the control disks, where…
Collagenolytic proteinases in keratoconus.
To study the proteolytic phenomena contributing to the pathogenesis of keratoconus, corneal enzymes with potential to cleave fibrillar collagen were studied.Immunohistochemical labeling was undertaken of conventional and novel mammalian collagenases (MMP-1, -2, -8, -13, and -14) of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family and other collagenolytic proteinases of the serine (human trypsin-2) and cysteine (cathepsin K) endoproteinase families. The results were analyzed using a semiquantitative scoring system.Labeling of MMP-8 was moderate in healthy controls, but weak in keratoconus. Moderate MMP-2 and weak MMP-14 expressions were similar in controls and keratoconus. MMP-1 was slightly overex…