INTRODUCTION Animal models currently used in osteoarthritis-associated pain research inadequately reproduce the initiating events and structural pathology of human osteoarthritis. Conversely, intra-articular injection of collagenase is a structurally relevant model, as it induces articular degeneration both by digesting collagen from cartilage and by causing articular instability, thereby repro...

Introduction: Keratoconus is a relatively common disease of cornea in which structural changes within the cornea cause it to thin and change to a conical shape and scar at the central portion of cornea. So far, few methods and drug treatments were introduced due to both lack of accepted animal models to induce experimental keratoconus and limitation of research in human considering ethical issu...

A mild trauma in the form of a thermal burn was applied to corneas of vitamin A--deficient rats and their pair-fed controls. The control corneas routinely showed rapid re-epithelialization without stromal changes. The corneas of deficient rats recovered more slowly, frequently exhibiting stromal edema, leukoma, and sometimes ulceration. Because collagenase is thought to initiate collagen destru...

CD14 is a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) receptor distributed largely in macrophages, monocytes, and neutrophils; however, the role of CD14 in activation of Kupffer cells by LPS remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to determine if different methods used to isolate Kupffer cells affect CD14. Kupffer cells were isolated by collagenase (0.025%) or collagenase-Pronase (0.02%) perfusion an...

Proteolytic enzymes, such as type IV collagenase, play an important rà ́le in tumor invasion and metastasis. To examine M, 72,000 type IV collagenase expression in human colon carcinoma, blot hybridizations of total RNA from 19 primary colon tumors were performed. These filters were probed with complementary DNA probes encoding the M, 72,000 type IV collagenase metalloenzyme. The results were ex...

In the transition from proliferation to hypertrophic cell zones in the growth plate, there is an increase in chondrocyte volume and a corresponding decrease in collagen content to accommodate the enlarging cells. It is postulated that collagenase accounts for this collagen loss. To test this hypothesis, tibial growth plates were obtained from normal rats, rachitic rats deficient in vitamin D an...

Calcium concentration influences keratinocyte differentiation, and, following injury, keratinocytes move through an environment of changing calcium levels. Because these migrating cells in wounds invariably express collagenase 1, we assessed if modulation of calcium levels regulates collagenase 1 production by primary human keratinocytes. Accurately reflecting the confined spatial pattern of en...