Role of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in formation of acute and chronic experimental arthritis

Free radical oxidation processes is an important link of rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis. Reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species are formed during cellular oxidative phosphorylation. They perform an important role in the transmission of cellular signals, destroy of foreign agents, regulation of cell proliferation. The hyperproduction of the reactive oxygen species can lead to a damage of proteins, lipids, nucleic acids and cell matrix components, including the synovial membrane and extra-articular tissues. Objective: to determine the reactive oxygen and nitrogen species roles in rats’s blood serum at experimental carrageenan- and collagen-induced inflammatory arthritis. Method: spectrophotometry with using biochemical analysis. Results: Rate of the reactive oxygen species (NO2–, •OH, H2O2) generation in the group of animals with collagen arthritis was higher than in the group of animals with carrageenan inflammation. In the same experimental group the nitrosative stress products and activities (cNOS, iNOS, NO2–, NO3–, ARG) were higher too. Conclusion: Products of the oxidative and nitrosative stresses contribute actively to development of pathological changes in tissues of animals with collagen arthritis which is an analogue of rheumatoid arthritis in humans, compared to the carrageenan-induced model of the immunoinflammatory process