Antioxidant defense and disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis

Another characteristic feature of RA is painful joints which are related to the deficiency of vitamin D. Thus it is important to assess the oxidative stress and levels of vitamin D to know the contributing features of pathogenesis and better clinical management of RA. In MTX treated patients the oxidative stress levels were less when compared to naive patients. Since MTX possess multiple mechanisms which could modulate the immunological response, the immune mediated proinflammatory cytokine release and cytokine stress leading to oxidative stress could have been reduced in the MTX treated patients. Dietary intake of antioxidant vitamins such as vitamin C, vitamin E and β-carotene are the best nutritional supplements to alleviate the tissue injury created through oxidative stress [20]. [...]the light of previous findings it is possible to conclude that increased oxidative stress have led to compensatory changes in antioxidant enzymes, but not sufficient to protect against formation of deleterious lipid endoperoxides in naive RA patients and deficiency of vitamin D has led to worsening of functional status of MTX treated patients. [...]for effective management of RA nutrition could play an important role.