The effects of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist on oxidant-induced arthritis in mice.

Objective: The anti-arthritic reactivity of the IL-1 receptor antagonist IL-1ra was tested in male DBA/1xB10A(4R) mice suffering from potassium peroxochromate-induced arthritis.

Methods: Inflammatory arthritis was induced in male DBA/1xB10A(4R) mice by the intraplantar application of potassium peroxochromate and was quantified by the determination of the arthritis index, whole blood chemiluminescence, serum sulfhydryls and nitric oxides. Culture supernatants of the fibroblasts were assayed spectrophotometrically for collagenase release.

NAD synthesis and ADPR transferase activity in blood lymphocytes of patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and of control persons.

NAD acts not only as a coenzyme in oxidation-reduction processes but also as substrate for adenoribosylation of different proteins. Patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis show a disturbance in their tryptophan metabolism. Since tryptophan represents a precursor of NAD we turned our attention to the activity of the ADPR transferase, being the enzyme of adenoribosylation, as well as to the synthesis of NAD derived from nicotinamide in human lymphocytes.