FAS and rheumatoid arthritis: More recently, susceptibility of human OA and RA synovial fibroblasts to fas-mediated apoptosis was increased by antisense oligonucleotides targeting the anti-apoptotic gene FLICE-inhibitory protein (FLIP) [60], and increased apoptosis of human RA synovial fibroblasts was induced upon antisense oligonucleotide targeting of galectin-9 [62].