Histologic analysis of bone erosions in mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) after treatment with IFN-β

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Taken from "Treatment with recombinant interferon-β reduces inflammation and slows cartilage destruction in the collagen-induced arthritis model of rheumatoid arthritis"

Arthritis Research & Therapy 2004;6(3):R239-R249.

Published online 23 Mar 2004

PMCID:PMC416442.

Copyright © 2004 van Holten et al., licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.

Mice were treated with the indicated concentrations of IFN-β for 7 days starting when the first clinical signs of arthritis were observed. Hind paws were taken for histology. Bone erosions were scored in a blinded manner on a scale of 0 to 4 as described in Materials and methods. A significant reduction in bone erosions was observed in the animals treated with 2.5 μg and 1.25 μg IFN-β per injection/mouse in comparison with controls (= 0.02); results are means ± . Immunohistochemical analysis of the number of cells positive for RANKL (receptor activator of NF-κB ligand) and c-Fos after 7 days of IFN-β treatment in CIA mice. Sections were scored on a 4-point scale. RANKL staining; a decrease of RANKL-positive cells was observed in the group of animals treated with 2.5 μg IFN-β, although not statistically significant (= 0.07). c-Fos staining; the number of c-Fos-positive cells was significantly reduced in the mice treated with daily 2.5 μg per injection IFN-β (= 0.04). *Statistically significant difference. , standard error of the mean.