title: Anti-arthritic effect of berberine on adjuvant-induced rheumatoid arthritis in rats.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic and systemic autoimmune disease, which affects approximately 1% adult population in the worldwide.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The present study was to investigate the anti-arthritic effect of berberine and its involved mechanism in Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA) induced arthritis rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  Rats were divided randomly into control, FCA, tripterysium glycosides, berberine (75 and 150mg/kg). The apparent indicators, including changes of body weights, paw swelling degrees and arthritis indexes, were analyzed to evaluate anti-arthritic effect of berberine. The levels of IL-6, IL-10, IL-17 and TGF-β in serum were measured by ELISA. Histopathological changes and immunohistochemical expression of anti-IL-10 and anti-IL-17 antibodies in ankle joint tissues were examined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Berberine obviously suppressed the severity of RA rats by attenuating the apparent indicators as mentioned above. Meanwhile, berberine significantly decreased the levels of IL-6 and IL-17, and increased the levels of IL-10 and TGF-β. Histopathological examinations indicated that berberine attenuated the synovial hyperplasia and inflammatory cell infiltration in joint tissues. In addition, immunohistochemical results showed that the amount of anti-IL-10 antibody increased, while the amount of anti-IL-17 antibody decreased in ankle tissues of arthritis rats.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results showed that berberine exerted a superior anti-arthritic effect and the mechanism maybe involve the balance between Treg and Th17 cells.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, UK.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China; Tang Center of Herbal Medicine Research and Department of Anesthesia & Critical Care, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. Electronic address: zhangchunfeng67@163.com.
authors.forename: Chun-Feng
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China. Electronic address: crguocpu@126.com.
authors.forename: Chang-Run
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Tang Center of Herbal Medicine Research and Department of Anesthesia & Critical Care, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Chong-Zhi
authors.initials: CZ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Tang Center of Herbal Medicine Research and Department of Anesthesia & Critical Care, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Chun-Su
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Yuan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000188:drug therapy*; D001599:Berberine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016207:Cytokines; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents; D016207:Cytokines; D001599:Berberine
keywords: Anti-inflammatory; Berberine; Freund’s complete adjuvant; Rheumatoid arthritis