Thalidomide therapy of established collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) not accompanied by an evident Th2 shift.
Thalidomide, a drug likely to affect the cytokine pattern, was administered orally to mice at various stages of CIA. Treatment (150 mg/kg per day by gavage, 5 days/week), started 6 weeks post-immunization, i.e. at the height of the disease, significantly reduced arthritis, and appeared also to reduce the level of inflammation as judged by neutrophil chemiluminescence. With treatment started 9 weeks post-immunization the effect on arthritis was no longer statistically significant, and when started at 14 weeks was lost. Over a dose range of up to 150 mg/kg per day the treatment had no effect on either interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) or IL-4 mRNA levels. The treatment is therefore not likely to have operated via a shift in the Th1/Th2 balance.
Hauschild
A
A
Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum, Berlin, Germany.
Kroeger
H
H
Mitchison
N A
NA
Ugrinovic
S
S
Zwingenberger
K
K
D000818:Animals; D001168:Arthritis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology; D003094:Collagen / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D018417:Th1 Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D018418:Th2 Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D013792:Thalidomide / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000096:biosynthesis
D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D013792:Thalidomide; D003094:Collagen