GFAP and osteoarthritis: Consistent with these findings, real-time qRT-PCR analysis of inflammation-associated mRNAs in the mouse brain demonstrated a significant upregulation of murine IL-1β, TNFα, MHC-II and GFAP mRNA 2 months after the induction of osteoarthritis (Figure 2F), which returned to baseline levels at the 6 month time point.