Anti-inflammatory properties of copper, gold and silver, individually and as mixtures.

It has been previously demonstrated that the mixture of Cu, Au and Ag impaired significantly the clinical and biochemical disorders induced by adjuvant arthritis in the rat. The efficiency of this mixture and of each component was tested on the same animal model. Treated rats were injected daily with either 22.8 micrograms of copper gluconate, 0.2 micrograms of gold thioglucose, 6.8 micrograms of silver proteinate or the blended solution over a period of 29 d. The treatment with the one component solutions was found to have a little or no effect on the plasma levels of fibrinogen, haptoglobin, ceruloplasmin, prostaglandin E2, thromboxane B2, total proteins, Zn, Cu, Mn, Se, Co and Ni, and no significant decrease was observed in the paw oedema resulting from the Freund's adjuvant injection. The treatment with the mixture had a significant preventive effect. Therefore it seems that the administration of low doses of each of the three trace elements have no anti-rheumatic property in the rat. The results indicate an enhanced effect of the metal mixture in the model studied.