Fig. 1.

The effect of juvenile and adult dcSSc and LS PBMC supernatants on MMP-1 production by SSc fibroblasts. PBMC isolated from patients with dcSSc (n = 4; solid bars) and LS (n = 5; hatched bars) were stimulated with and without CI for 6 days, and the individual supernatants were tested for their effect on the MMP-1 production by SSc fibroblasts. Dermal fibroblasts from a patient with SSc (SSc008) were cultured for 21 days each with PBMC supernatants with (a) and without CI (b) after stimulation with TNF-α for 24 h. The amount of MMP-1 accumulating in the culture supernatants is shown measured by Western blot calculated as a percentage of MMP-1 from fibroblasts that were not co-cultured with PBMC supernatant, but were stimulated with TNF-α (control). Results were confirmed by ELISA (not shown). Results are expressed as mean ± SEM for MMP-1 content of the medium from the fibroblast cultures