[Studying the effect of the combination of angiotensin II receptor blockers [losartan] with glucocorticoids in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis after inducing it in rats]

ABSTRACT

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease that lead to disability, and all drugs used to treat it have many side effects, the objective of this study is to investigate the effect of angiotensin receptor blockers [losartan], and their combination with glucocorticoids in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, after inducing this disease in rats. We studied this effect in male Wistar rats injected with complete freund's adjuvant [CFA] to induce this disease. And we investigated the effect of losartan, and its combination with dexamethasone in low dose, we compared too this effect with the effect of dexamethasone in low and high doses, the drugs were administrated On day 12[th] of the injection of CFA till the end of the experiment [day 28[th]], and at the end of the experiment, ankle joints from all groups were isolated for histological study. losartan reduced only the infiltration of inflammatory cells to the synovium, but it didn't reduce synovial hyperplasia and the destruction of the cartilage, but the combination of losartan with low dose of dexamethasone reduced all these parameters, and the efficacy of this combination was equal to the efficacy obtained by dexamethasone in high dose. The combination of losartan with low dose of glucocorticids leads to a significant efficacy in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, and so, with lower side effects of glucocorticoids.