Glucosamine, a naturally occurring amino monosaccharide has been used to treat or prevent osteoarthritis in humans. In this study, we evaluated the effect of glucosamine on rat adjuvant arthritis, a model of rheumatoid arthritis.
Adjuvant arthritis was induced in male Wistar rats by injection of Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA) into the right hind paw, and 300 mg/kg of glucosamine, an extra-dose compared with a regular dose for osteoarthritis patients (1.5 g/day, approximately 25 mg/kg), was orally administered once a day to the arthritic rats for 22 days.
Glucosamine significantly suppressed the increase in arthritis score (p < 0.05) after day 10 of adjuvant injection, and inhibited the swelling of FCA-injected right and -uninjected left hind paws (p < 0.01) after day 18. In addition, histopathological examination of the arthritic joints revealed that glucosamine suppressed synovial hyperplasia, cartilage destruction and inflammatory cell infiltration. Furthermore, glucosamine reduced the production of nitric oxide and prostaglandin E(2) in plasma (p < 0.05).
These observations suggest that glucosamine is able to suppress the progression of adjuvant arthritis in rats. Glucosamine may be expected as a novel anti-inflammatory agent for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.