Effects of chronic food restriction stress and chronic psychological stress on the development of adjuvant arthritis in male long evans rats.

The aim of the present experiments was to study the effect of stress of chronic food restriction (FR) and of repeated psychological challenge (PS) on the development of adjuvant arthritis in the Long Evans male rats. In the FR series, four groups of animals were compared: non-treated control (C) and arthritic (AA) rats, both with free access to food and water, and two analogous groups with a 40% food restriction-FR and AA-FR. All animals were killed 22 days after injection of cFA. In the PS series, stress was induced by random daily exposures of the rats to isolation, over-crowding, food/water deprivation, foot shock, tilting, fear for 14 days before cFA injection and 12 days thereafter (groups: C, AA, PS, and AA-PS). Arthritis causes swelling of the hindpaw, which was prevented in the AA-FR group. PS causes more severe disease symptoms: AA-PS rats had more severe hindpaw swelling than AA rats. Forty percent food restriction associated with elevated CORT levels mitigated inflammatory parameters activated during AA. PS worsened the disease. These results suggested that activated CORT is not the only cause of disease suppression, but some metabolic changes during FR play a role.

Stress of chronic food restriction attenuates the development of adjuvant arthritis in male Long Evans rats.

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of the stress of chronic food restriction on the development of adjuvant arthritis in Long Evans male rats. METHODS: Four groups of animals were compared: non-treated control (C) and arthritic (AA) rats, both with free access to food and water and two analogous groups with a 40% food restriction, i.e. non-treated (FR) and arthritic (AA-FR) animals. All rats were killed 22 days following the injection of complete Freund's adjuvant. The parameters measured were: serum levels of albumin (ALB), nitrate, glucose, insulin, corticosterone (CORT), prolactin (PRL) and PRL mRNA in the adenopituitaries. In addition the activity of gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGTP) was measured in the spleen. The pain threshold was determined by the tailflick method. The body weight of the animals was recorded on day 0, 3, 7, 11, 15 and 18 of the disease. RESULTS: Arthritis caused swelling of the hind paw (2.37 +/- 0.15 ml vs 1.1 +/- 0.05ml in controls, p < 0.01) which was prevented in the AA-FR group (1.44 +/- 0.13 ml, not significant against controls). Arthritis increased serum NO and reduced ALB levels; both changes were significantly restored in the FR-AA group. Food restriction did not alter the activation of GGTP, or the decrease of PRL mRNA observed in the AA group. Serum CORT was elevated in rats with food restriction (15.49 +/- 2.1 vs. 3.7 +/- 0.87 microg/dL) and remained enhanced to the same extent in AA and FR-AA groups. The tailflick latency prolonged in the AA group was reduced by food restriction. CONCLUSION: These results show that 40% food restriction associated with elevated CORT levels mitigated the inflammatory parameters activated during AA.

[Indicators of articular cartilage degeneration in synovial fluid]. / Ukazatele degradace kloubní chrupavky v synoviální tekutine.

Detection of proteoglycans in biological fluids is a perspective method for the evaluation of the degree of catabolic processes in articular cartilage. The demand of accuracy and specificity of detection of substructures of the degradation products of the cartilaginous matrix, with the perspective of routine large scale examinations, restricts available possible methods practically only to the use of immunochemical methods. In the present investigation in the inhibitory ELISA test polyclonal antibodies with a double specificity in relation to basic structures of the cartilage--proteoglycans--were used. The highest concentrations of degradation products of proteoglycans in punctates of synovial fluid were found in diseases where the clinical picture is dominated by repeated attacks of the joints with longer remission periods, and where the attack is stimulated, usually by stimuli of an intermittent systemic or exogenous character (gout, reactive arthritis incl. Reiter's syndrome, Lyme disease).

Articular needle biopsy and pigmented villonodular synovitis.

The authors discuss the significance of needle biopsy of joints for the diagnosis of pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVS). Their own 4 cases of this disease were diagnosed with the help of articular needle biopsy. The representative sample of the synovial membrane obtained with the biopsy and its histology, together with the clinical picture and other paraclinical investigations are fully adequate for establishing the diagnosis of pigmented villonodular synovitis.