Fig. 1.

TNF-α increased synovial cell migration and BAFF expression. (A) MH7A cells were plated on 35-mm2 dishes and incubated for 24 h. A confluent monolayer of MH7A cells was then scratched with a sterile pipet tip, and incubated for 24 h. Migration of cells into the space left by the scratch was stained with 0.1% crystal violet solution including 20% methanol and photographed using a phase-contrast microscope at 200× magnification. (B) The empty area remaining at each time point was quantified using NIH image analysis software (version 1.62; National Institutes of Health), and compared to that of the 0-h time point. Fold changes in migration were presented as bar graph. Data are presented as means ± SD. **p<0.01, significant difference as compared to TNF-α-untreated control. (C, D) MH7A cells were treated with 10 ng/mL TNF-α for 1, 3, 6, and 9 h (C). MH7A cells were treated with 5, 10 and 20 ng/mL TNF-α for 6 h (D). RNA was isolated with Trizol. BAFF, TNFR1 and TNFR2 transcripts were measured by RT-PCR (C, top and D, top). Cell lysates were prepared and western blotting was used to detect BAFF (C, bottom and D, bottom). Data were the representative of four experiments (A-D).