Estrogen Pharmacology. II. Suppression of Experimental Immune Polyarthritis

Abstract

Summary Estradiol and its transformation products, estrone and estriol, markedly diminish the incidence and severity of the inflammatory polyarthritis induced by adjuvant injection in rats. These natural estrogens confer protection whether administered before inoculation or during the latent period of the disease, suggesting that they may act in part to suppress the capacity of the involved tissues to react to the immunologic inflammatory stimulus in this disorder. These observations are consistent with others which indicate that estrogens and/or pregnancy may alter certain expressions of immunoogical responsiveness in man and experimental animals.