Effect of piracetam in models of experimental inflammation.

The effect of piracetam has been studied in experimental models of the inflammatory process--the models of rat's paw oedema and intraperitoneal formalin ascites for the exudative phase and the cotton pellet model for the proliferative phase. Piracetam restricts the development of the exudative and proliferative phases of the inflammatory process. The degree of this reduction in the models used is similar to that observed after treatment with known antiinflammatory drugs. On the basis of data in the literature, the effects observed are explained by the action of piracetam upon cell-membrane permeability and the oxidation-reduction processes in the cell.