Treatment of adjuvant arthritis in rats with Chinese herbal fumigation: efficacy and mechanism

Abstract

To observe the efficacy of fumigation with Fumigant I formula, a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine, in treating adjuvant arthritis (AA) in rats and to explore its anti-inflammation mechanism. Fifty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into normal control group, untreated group, distilled-water fumigation group, and low- and high-dose herb fumigation groups. Except for the normal control group, the other rats were used to induce AA by complete Freund's adjuvant injection. After treatments, the degree of foot swelling, the pathological changes and expressions of the inflammatory cytokines including interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) in the ankle joint were detected. The contents of these cytokines in the serum were also observed. In two Chinese herbal fumigation groups, as compared with the untreated group, foot swelling was obviously reduced (P<0.05); the pathological changes of the ankle joint, such as inflammatory cell infiltration, fibrous tissue and synovial cell proliferation in the ankle joint were obviously improved (P<0.05, P<0.01); the positive expressions of IL-1beta, TNF-alpha, ICAM-1 in the ankle joint were significantly down-regulated (P<0.05); and the contents of these inflammatory cytokines in the serum were obviously decreased (P<0.05). The treatment effect in high-dose herb fumigation group was better than that in low-dose herb fumigation group and that in distilled-water fumigation group (P<0.05, P<0.01). Fumigation with Chinese herbal medicine has a positive therapeutic effect on AA rats, and its anti-inflammatory mechanism may be related with inhibiting inflammatory cytokines IL-1beta, TNF-alpha and ICAM-1.