Response to 'Ramipril attenuates lipid peroxidation and cardiac fibrosis in an experimental model of rheumatoid arthritis' - authors' reply

about our recent study [2] and would like to make two points to clarify our reasoning. First, in our study [2], female Lewis rats have been used in order to induce arthritis. Th is experimental model of arthritis was well described in our previous study published in Molecular Th erapy [3]. Actually, a number of researchers use male or female animals to induce arthritis. For example, the use of female rats to induce arthritis has been reported in several recent articles [4-11]. In our unpublished data, we have shown that (a) adjuvant most likely induces arthritis equally in female and male Lewis rats and (b) female and male Lewis rats with arthritis have similar levels of lipid peroxidation products and cardiac fi brosis markers in heart tissues. Th ese data were obtained by using a small cohort of male Lewis rats (n = 3), and we are keeping in mind that additional experiments will be performed in a future project of ours with a large cohort of male rats. Second, in our recent study [2], female Lewis rats with arthritis received ramipril (10 mg/kg per day). Th e dose of this drug was chosen from the literature [12-14]. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. References 1. Wang D, Hu S, Wei W: Response to 'Ramipril attenuates lipid peroxidation and cardiac fi brosis in an experimental model of rheumatoid arthritis'. attenuates lipid peroxidation and cardiac fi brosis in an experimental model of rheumatoid arthritis. Bone-protective eff ects of nonviral gene therapy with folate-chitosan DNA nanoparticle containing interleukin-1 receptor antagonist gene in rats with adjuvant-induced arthritis. Treatment of experimental adjuvant arthritis with a novel folate receptor-targeted folic acid-aminopterin conjugate. Comparative effi cacy of a secretory phospholipase A2 inhibitor with conventional anti-infl ammatory agents in a rat model of antigen-induced arthritis. CD: T-614, a novel immunomodulator, attenuates joint infl ammation and articular damage in collagen-induced arthritis. A combination of methotrexate and zoledronic acid prevents bone erosions and systemic bone mass loss in collagen induced arthritis. Diff erential eff ects of locally and systemically administered soluble glycoprotein 130 on pain and infl ammation in experimental arthritis. A: Attenuation of pain and infl ammation in adjuvant-induced arthritis by the proteasome inhibitor MG132. Formation of invadopodia-like structures by synovial cells promotes cartilage breakdown in collagen-induced arthritis: involvement of the protein tyrosine kinase Src. Spinal cathepsin S and fractalkine contribute to chronic …