NGF and arthritic joint disease: Indeed, recent studies have demonstrated that mononuclear cells (MNC) including T cells and macrophages as well as inflammatory mediators, such as nerve growth factor (NGF), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF α), are involved in onset and persistence of pain in both humans with OA and experimental models of arthritis [4,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18].