Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that flavonoid quercetin has biological properties including antioxidative, anti-inflammatory and apoptosis-inducing activities. But its effect on monosodium urate crystal-induced in?ammation in the rats required further investigation.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of quercetin on monosodium urate crystal-induced acute in?ammation in the rats model.
METHODS: Totally 72 male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into six groups. Quercetin (100, 200, 400 mg/kg) and indomethacin (3.0 mg/kg) or equivalent distilled water was given orally once a day for 7 consecutive days throughout the experiment (model group and control group). At the 5th day, gouty arthritis model was established by intra-articular injection of 100 µL (3.0 mg) of monosodium urate crystal suspension inside the ankle joint of the right hind limb at 1 hour after administration. Control group was without modeling. The in?ammation was quanti?ed by measuring the circumference of the joint with a tie line method. At the 7th day, the rats were killed for sampling at 1 hour after administration.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The present study found that quercetin had a marked inhibitory effect on edema in the experimental gouty arthritis in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.01), and improved the evolution of the histological signs of acute inflammation in the monosodium urate crystal arthritis in rats. In addition, the quercetin appeared to suppress neutrophil recruitment, interleukin-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α, cyclooxygenase-2 and nitric oxide by suppressing monosodium urate crystal-induced chemokine production (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). The suppression effect was equal to indomethacin. It is clearly indicated that quercetin exerts a strong anti-in?ammatory effect and can be regarded as a useful tool for the treatment of acute gouty arthritis.