Vitamin E Fights Arthritis-Like Damage in Mice

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Vitamin E Fights Arthritis-Like Damage in

Mice

Fri Mar 29,10:15 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - French

scientists have found that vitamin E

can reduce joint destruction in mice with

a rheumatoid arthritis-like

condition--suggesting, they say, that the

vitamin should be studied as a

potential therapy for the human disease.

The vitamin did not help the symptoms of

the disease in mice, but it did

prevent some breakdown in the animals'

joints, according to researchers

led by Dr. Michel De Bandt, of the Centre

Hospitalo- Universitaire Xavier

Bichat in Paris.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory

condition in which the immune

system mistakenly attacks the lining of

the joints, leading to pain,

swelling and loss of mobility. Joint

destruction occurs over time.

According to De Bandt's team, potentially

damaging forms of oxygen in the

body called reactive oxygen species are

thought to play a role in this

process. In line with this theory,

rheumatoid arthritis patients have

been found to have low blood levels of

antioxidants like vitamins E and

C, which help neutralize reactive oxygen

species.

There have been some clinical trials of

using antioxidants to treat

rheumatoid arthritis, but the results have

been mixed, the researchers

note. So they sought to weed out the

effects of vitamin E alone in a

mouse " model " of the disease.

The investigators found that after 6 weeks

of vitamin E treatment, mice

with the arthritic condition showed

symptoms, but the destruction in

their bone and cartilage was much less

severe than that in animals not

given the vitamin. The vitamin-treated

mice also showed lower blood

levels of an inflammatory protein produced

by the immune system called

interleukin-1beta--which, De Bandt and

colleagues note, is involved in

joint destruction.

Exactly how vitamin E might have prevented

joint destruction is unclear.

The researchers found no evidence that the

antioxidant altered the

oxidation process in the animals'

circulation.

" Our results, " they conclude, " emphasize

the potential interest of

vitamin E in arthritis and deserve further

evaluation in order to fully

understand its precise mechanism of

action. "

SOURCE: Arthritis and Rheumatism

2002;46:522-532.

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