Effects of Sanwushaoxie decoction on IL-18, TNF-alpha, IL-4 and IL-10 in patients with rheumatoid arthritis / 中国中药杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the therapeutic effects of Sanwushaoxie decoction on alternations of serum cytokines in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Sixty-three (63) RA patients were selected and randomly divided into 2 groups, with the treatment group administered with Sanwushaoxie decoction, one prescription, 2 times a day, while patients in the control group were given Common Threewingnut Root polyglycoside 20 mg a time, 3 times a day. The treatment was lasted for 60 days. Serum concentrations of IL-6, TNF-alpha, IL-4, IL-10 were observed during the treatment.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The clinical effecacy and the experimental indexes were significantly improved in the treatment group than those did in the control group (P < 0.01, P < 0.05). There were significant differences of serum levels of 4 cytokines within the treatment group before and after the treatment (P < 0.01, P < 0.05). The serum levels of IL-4, IL-10 were significantly increased in treatment group compared with those did in the control group (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Sanwushaoxie decoction is an effective agent in regulating cytokines, improving symptoms and experimental indexes in patients with RA.</p>