LPS and methylprednisolone induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head in rats and this was associated with a disruption of the innate immune system and lipid synthesis. These findings suggest that the TLR4 signalling pathway plays an important role in the pathogenesis of femoral head osteonecrosis.

This article represents the proceedings of a workshop at the 2000 ISBRA Meeting in Yokohama, Japan. The chair was Albert Y. Sun. The presentations were (1) Ethanol-inducible cytochrome P-4502E1 in alcoholic liver disease, by Magnus Ingelman-Sundberg and Etienne Neve; (2) Regulation of NF-kappaB by ethanol, by H. Matsumoto, Y. Nishitani, Y. Minowa, and Y. Fukui; (3) Chronic ethanol consumption increases concentration of oxidized proteins in rat liver, by Shannon M. Bailey, Vinood B. Patel, and Carol C. Cunningham; (4) Antiphospholipids antibodies and oxidized modified low-density lipoprotein in chronic alcoholic patients, by Tomas Zima, Lenka Fialova, Ludmila Mikulikova, Ptr Popov, Ivan Malbohan, Marta Janebova, and Karel Nespor; and (5) Amelioration of ethanol-induced damage by polyphenols, by Albert Y. Sun and Grace Y. Sun.