Oral enzyme therapy in the animal model of collagen-II induced arthritis in mice

Stauder G.

Mucos Pharma Intl., Geretsried, Germany

2^nd Central European Congress of Rheumatology, 13-16 May, 1998, Warsaw, Poland 
published in Reumatologia 1998, Suppl Vol. XXXVI, Warsaw 1998, Lectures No. 210, pp 106-107 
ISSN 0034-6233

619 KA (19-09-2)

Male DBA/1 mice, 5 weeks old, 20 g bodyweight, were immunized by subcutaneous injection of collagen II in complete Freund's adjuvant at the base of the tail. After 21 days the immunization was repeated with collagen II in incomplete Freund's adjuvant. Age-matched control mice remained totally unmanipulated.
From day 28, the immunized mice were treated either with orally applied Phlogenzymâ , or ibuprofen, or were left untreated.
At various times after, each foot from the animals was checked for swelling and redness, and documented as score. Additionally, selected feet from each mouse were measured in the transversal and saggital planes. After exsanguination under ether anesthesia serum samples and lymph nodes were collected. Some mice were investigated by radiography and histology. 
The signs of the arthritis - as clinical score - were reduced significantly in both treatment groups, as compared to the untreated mice (table 1). The swelling and redness, however, was in both treated groups still more present than in the healthy control group (i.e. non-immunized mice). The clinical score did not differ between the two treatment groups.
Histologically, the joints were nearly totally obliterated in the untreated group. Granulation tissue filled the joint space, the cartilage was destroyed. Joints in the treated groups were significantly less damaged.