Abstract
It has been shown that immunomodulators are effective as a remittive agent in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) . But their modes of action are not fully understood yet although they are significantly different from the effects of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Most of the im-munomodulators have been shown to have in vitro and in vivo effects on the immune system which are probably related to their therapeutic effectiveness.
In the present study, we investigated in vitro effects of immunomodulators, bucillamine (Bc), auranofin (AF), salazosulfapyridine (SASP), on the production and secretion of monoclonal IgM rheumatoid factor (RF) by human-mouse hetero hybridoma (YES8c) .
Each drug exerted inhibitory effects on expression of messenger RNA, production and secretion of RF protein. These results suggest that Bc, AF and SASP have immunomodulatory characteristics which may be related to their direct inhibitory effects on B lymphocytes in vivo.
