Inhibition of adjuvant-induced arthritis by 16(alpha)-fluoro-5-androsten-17-one

The adrenal steroid dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) produces cancer-preventive, antiatherosclerotic, antidiabetic, immunomodulating, and anti-inflammatory effects in laboratory animals. The clinical use of DHEA is limited by its androgenicity. We have developed a synthetic congener of DHEA called fluasterone that, in animal tests, lacks the androgenicity, estrogenicity, and peroxisome-proliferating effects of DHEA but retains the cancer-preventive, antidiabetic, and anti-inflammatory efficacy. This report discusses how fluasterone ameliorates the development of joint inflammation in an adjuvant-arthritis model in Lewis rats.