Does disease activity improvement in rheumatoid arthritis treated with tumor necrosis factor-α inhibitors correlate with increased soluble Fas levels?
In RA, an increase in sFas levels closely correlates with improvement in disease activity induced by TNF-α inhibitors, suggesting their ability to modulate Fas-mediated synoviocyte apoptosis.
Elastin is regulated at the level of degradation during liver fibrosis. Macrophage-derived MMP-12 regulates elastin degradation even in progressive experimental liver fibrosis. These observations have important implications for the design of antifibrotic therapies.