Abstract

The anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic activity of GN1 (6-hydroxymethyl-3-(1-methylene-allylamino)-tetrahydropyran- 2,4,5-triol), an analog of glucoseamine was investigated in the adjuvant induced arthritis (AIA) in rats. It was observed that the highly increased hind paw swelling was significantly reduced (p<0.001) with no noticeable retardation of body weight in the GN1 treated arthritic rats as compared to arthritic control rats. The histopathological analysis of isolated rat joints by scaling system classification of different stages appear in arthritic inflammatory lesion development, disclosed the suppressive effect in the inflammation processing in the GN1 treated animals. Different predictive markers such as TNF-α, nitric oxide IL-1β, peroxide and glutathione were also determined in the serum samples of the treated and non-treated arthritic rats in order to measure the intensity of inflammation. Our results show that GN-1 treatment in arthritic groups demonstrated marked reduction in c-fos expression. Results also revealed that GN1 significantly reduces the peroxide production (p<0.002) and both the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α (p<0.015) and IL-1β (p<0.001) in the arthritic rats receiving this treatment. Although, nitric oxide formation was found to be less than the arthritic control but this reduction was not significant. The level of glutathione was significantly increased in GN1 treated arthritic rats (p<0.037). These observations suggest that GN1 may help in reducing the inflammation and have anti-arthritic properties.

Keywords: C-fos; Adjuvant induced arthritis; Pro inflammatory markers; Cytokines; Reactive oxygen species; Glucosamine