Osteoarthritis is a heterogeneous disease of joints that affects mainly older population. Definitive cure of osteoarthritis is still undiscovered. This study was designed to evaluate and compare the chondroprotective effects of hyaluronic acid and triamcinolone in murine model of osteoarthritis. Methods: This Laboratory based experimental study was carried out in Pharmacology Department, Army Medical College Rawalpindi, from April-June 2019. Osteoarthritis was induced by medial menisectomy and anterior cruciate ligament resectioning of knee joints of twenty-four rats which were then divided into three groups with eight rats in each. Group I, II and III were named control, hyaluronic acid and triamcinolone groups respectively, which were given intra-articular injections of these drugs once weekly for four consecutive weeks and then gait pattern was scored. Animals were sacrificed thereafter and samples were collected for histopathological analysis. Results: Comparison of gait score of control, hyaluronic acid and triamcinolone groups exhibited a p value of <0.01 while intergroup comparison between group I and II, group I and III and group II and III depicted p value of <0.001, 0.016 and 0.003 respectively. Likewise, collective histopathological analysis of the three groups showed p value of <0.01 while intergroup comparison of group I and II, group I and III and group II and III showed p value of <0.001 for all. Conclusion: Comparison of control group with treatment groups proved chondroprotective effects of hyaluronic acid and triamcinolone. Additionally, hyaluronic acid proved to provide better chondroprotection as compared to triamcinolone.

Background: Osteoarthritis is the most common chronic degenerative joint disease. Definite treatment of osteoarthritis is still undiscovered. This study was designed to evaluate and compare the chondroprotective efficacy of piroxicam and triamcinolone in rat model of osteoarthritis. Methods: This laboratory based experimental study was conducted in Pharmacology Department, Army Medical College, Rawalpindi, from April-June 2019. Osteoarthritis was induced by medial meniscectomy and anterior cruciate ligament resection in knee joints of twenty-four rats. They were divided in three groups with eight rats in each. Group I, II and III were control, piroxicam and triamcinolone groups that were treated by intra articular saline, piroxicam and triamcinolone once weekly for four weeks respectively and then gait pattern was scored. Animals were euthanized thereafter and samples were taken for histopathological analysis. Results: Comparison of gait score of control, piroxicam and triamcinolone groups exhibited a p-value of <0.01. Intergroup comparison of gait of group I and II, group I and III and group II and IV depicted p-value of <0.001,0.013 and 0.013 respectively. Likewise histopathological comparison of control, piroxicam and triamcinolone groups showed p-value of <0.01. While Intergroup histopathological comparison of group I and II, group I and III and group II and IV showed p-value of <0.001, <0.001 and 0.008 respectively. conclusion: Comparison of control group with treatment group proved chondroprotective efficacy of piroxicam and triamcinolone. On comparison of treatment groups, it was concluded that piroxicam has better chondroprotective efficacy as compared to triamcinolone.

Objective: To evaluate the chondroprotective effect of piroxicam in post-traumatic osteoarthritis model of rat. Study Design: Laboratory based experimental study. Place and Duration of Study: Pharmacology department, Army Medical College, Rawalpindi, from Apr to Jun 2019. Methodology: Project included sixteen rats of Sprague Dawley breed. Osteoarthritis was induced in anesthetized rats by surgical removal of medial meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament resection. After that rats were randomly allocated in two groups with eight rats in each group. Rats of group I were positive control that received 0.2 ml saline intra articularly once weekly for four weeks. Meanwhile rats of group II (treatment group) received 50 µl piroxicam intra articularly once weekly for four weeks. One week after the drug intervention, radiograph of the right knee joint of all rats were taken. Animals were then sacrificed with inhaled chloroform and part of proximal tibia was obtained for histopathological analysis. Results: Comparison of radiographs of both groups depicted a significant p-value of <0.01. Meanwhile mean histopathological score of control group and treatment group were 11.50 ± 1.195 and 6.50 ± 1.195 respectively with a p-value of <0.01. Conclusion: Intra articular administration of piroxicam in post-traumatic Osteoarthritis model of rats resulted in improvement in radiographic grades and histopathology scores.

Background: Diabetes is a serious disease which is posing a great risk to the overall health care all around the globe. Major factor in its systemic adverse effects is the enhancement of lipolysis by prolonged hyperglycaemia ultimately leading to dyslipidemia. This dyslipidemia is a big risk feature for all cardiovascular diseases related to most of the diabetic patients. L arginine blessed with antioxidant properties can play a substantial role in the prevention, and management of diabetes and related complications. The study was aimed at finding the novel uses of L-Arginine in diabetes. Subject and method: 15 adult Sprague Dawley rats , only female (to avoid pregnancy) weighing 250+ 50 g were used in this study which were divided equally (five rats each) into three groups randomly after ensuring that their lipid profiles and blood sugar were normal. After keeping one group as Normal Control Group (NC), the remaining two groups were made quasi-analogue Type II diabetic model through administration of Streptozotocin (35 mg/kg) in a single dose intra-peritoneal (IP). After lapse of 48 hours, all the rats of two groups had shown blood sugar levels over 300 mg/dl and therefore were taken as diabetic. One of the two diabetic groups was taken as “Positive Control” with DM rats (DM), while the other was taken as treatment group DM+L-ARG Group”.  Results: With regards to fasting blood sugar (BSF), total cholesterol (T-Chol), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL), Group III (DM+L-ARG) showed significant improvement with the p-value of less than 0.001. Conclusion: After conducting this experimental animal work, we are able to conclude that in Streptozotocin induced diabetic model, the novel use of antioxidant L-Arginine with good safety profile and minimal adverse effects also has significant anti-hyperglycemic and anti-lipidemic activity.

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Osteoarthritis is one of the most common joint diseases afflicting human, characterized by progressive degeneration of articular cartilage in which chondrocytes fails to adequately repair. Objective of this study is to evaluate the chondroprotection offered by triamcinolone in osteoarthritis induced rat model METHODOLOGY: This Laboratory based experimental study was conducted in Department of Pharmacology, Army Medical College, Rawalpindi, in collaboration with National Institute of health, Islamabad from April-June2019. Osteoarthritis was induced by surgical removal of medial meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament resection in right knee joint of Sixteen (16) anesthetized rats of Sprague Dawley breed. They were divided in two (02) groups with eight (08) rats in each group. Group I was disease control in which 0.2 ml Intra articular saline was administered for three weeks. While group II was treatment group that was treated by 70 µl intra articular triamcinolone once weekly for three weeks. After that gait pattern of rats was scored. Animals were euthanized with over dosage of inhaled chloroform and sample of proximal tibia was taken for histopathological analysis.RESULTS: Mean gait score of control group and treatment group was 3.25±.707 and 2.25±.463 with a p value of .028 that is statistically significant. While mean histopathological modified Mankin score of control and treatment group was 11.5±1.195 and 8.5±1.195 respectively with a significant P-value of <0.01. CONCLUSION: Intra articular administration of triamcinolone in Osteoarthritis induced rats resulted in improvement in gait pattern and histopathology. Keywords: Chondroprotective efficacy, Osteoarthritis, Triamcinolone.