Animal Tests Suggest Vitamin E as Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment

The results of a French study suggest that vitamin E could be a potential treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.

In a six-week study of mice, researchers in Paris found that the vitamin prevented arthritis-like breakdown in the animals' joints, although it did not modify the date of onset or severity of the disease.

Rheumatoid arthritis patients have been found to have low blood levels of antioxidants, which help neutralize reactive oxygen species - potentially damaging forms of oxygen. But the use of antioxidants in clinical trials has produced mixed results, prompting researchers to use only vitamin E for this study.

Vitamin-treated mice had substantially less severe damage to their bones and cartilage, and had lower blood levels of the inflammatory protein, interleukin-1beta, which is involved in joint destruction.

"Vitamin E seems to uncouple joint inflammation and joint destruction in this model of (rheumatoid arthritis), with a beneficial effect on joint destruction," the researchers wrote in Arthritis and Rheumatism. "Our findings suggest opportunities of therapeutic interest in human rheumatoid arthritis."

Other sources:Arthritis and Rheumatism