[The effect of prodigiozan and methyluracil on adjuvant arthritis in rats].

The effect of prodigiozan and methyluracil on the development of adjuvant arthritis was studied on 120 noninbred albino rats. When prodigiozan was used in a dose of 50 micrograms per 100 g of the body weight once every 4 days beginning from the 1st to the 12th day after the injection of the complete Freund adjuvant, it inhibited the development of arthritis and lowered the level of the "inflammatory units" in the plasma. When prodigiozan was used from the 9th to the 23rd day after the adjuvant injection, it accelerated the development of arthritis and made more pronounced the clinical signs of the disease. The use of methyluracil in a dose of 200 mg/kg daily from the 1st to the 12th day after the adjuvant injection had no effect on the arthritis development, while its use from the 9th to the 23rd day after the adjuvant injection had a pronounced antiinflammatory effect. The data suggest that combinations of prodigiozan and methyluracil with antiinflammatory and immunodepressant agents might be used in the treatment of autoimmune diseases.