Anti-epileptic drugs inhibit viability of synoviocytes in vitro.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE The hyperplasia of synovial fibroblasts is considered to be essential for the evolution of joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Previously, we reported that anti-rheumatic drugs, both COX inhibitors and disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs inhibit proliferation of synoviocytes in vitro. The presented study investigates the effect of anti-epileptic drugs on the viability and proliferation of synovial fibroblasts in vitro. METHODS Experiments were conducted on human synoviocytes derived from an RA patient and rabbit synoviocytes cell line HIG-82. Cell proliferation and viability were assessed by means of BrdU assay and MTT assay, respectively. The IC50 value (the concentration of drug necessary to induce 50% inhibition) together with confidence limits was calculated. RESULTS Carbamazepine inhibited proliferation of human fibroblasts and viability of HIG-82 with IC 50 values of 86 µM and 82 µM, respectively. Diphenylhydantoin, valproate and phenobarbital inhibited viability of HIG-82 cells with the IC50 values of 110, 500 and 1031 µM, respectively. CONCLUSION Based on these findings, it can be suggested that anti-epileptic drugs may have a disease-modifying effect on rheumatoid synovial proliferation.