抄録
The effect of gold compounds on calcium ionophore A 23187 induced platelet-activating factor (PAF) production by human neutrophilis has been studied. We assumed that PAF might play an important role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as a potent inflammatory mediator, because PAF has a many biological actions, such as neutrophil activation, platelet activation and increasing vessel permiability.
1×107 human neutrophils produced 20.7±3. 5 unit (ranging 16.8 to 42.5 unit) of PAF production by the stimulation of 10 μg/ml of ionophore. Gold sodium thiomalate (GST) did not have any inhibitory effect on PAF production at the concentrations ranging from 1 ng/ml to 100 μg/ml. In contrast auranofin (AF) dose-dependently inhibited PAF production, 17.9% at 10-2 μg/ml to 56.1% at 1 μg/ml and 71.2% at 10 μg/ ml. This inhibitory action observed at the therapeutic concentrations reached during AF treatment in RA patients.
The dissimilar action of GST and AF might be attributable to their different biochemical structure, and many previous reports of the inhibitory effect of gold compounds on neutrophil functions support our result.
The effectiveness of AF in the treatment of RA patients is partially due to its antiinflammatory action, because PAF may play an important role in perpetuation and in tissue injury in rheumatoid arthritis.
