Curcuma longa (turmeric) rhizomes contains
curcumin, an active compound which possesses anti-inflammatory effects.
Collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) is an accepted experimental animal model of
rheumatoid arthritis. The present study aimed to observe the histological changes in the joints of experimental arthritic rats treated with
curcumin. Twenty four male Sprague-Dawley (approximately 7 weeks-old) rats were randomly divided into four groups. Three groups were immunized with 150 µg
collagen. All rats with established CIA, with
arthritis scores exceeding 1, were orally treated with
betamethasone (0.5 mg/ml/kg
body weight),
curcumin (110 mg/ml/kg
body weight) or
olive oil (1.0 ml/kg
body weight) daily, for two weeks. One remaining group was kept as normal control. Treatment with 110 mg/ml/kg
curcumin showed significant mean differences in the average white blood cell (WBC) count (p<0.05), cell infiltration, bone and cartilage erosion scores (p<0.05) compared to the
olive oil treated group. Pannus formation scores showed that
curcumin supplementation successfully suppressed the pannus formation process that occurred in the articular cartilage of the CIA joints. The mean difference for histological scores for the
curcumin group was insignificant compared to the
betamethasone treated group. It is concluded that supplementation of
curcumin has protective effect on the histopathological and degenerative changes in the joints of CIA rats which was at par with
betamethasone.