EN
Introduction and objective: The hyperplasia of synovial fibroblasts is considered to be essential for the evolution of joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Previously, we reported that anti-rheumatic drugs, both COX inhibitors and disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs inhibit proliferation of synoviocytes in vitro. The presented study investigates the effect of anti-epileptic drugs on the viability and proliferation of synovial fibroblasts in vitro. Methods: Experiments were conducted on human synoviocytes derived from an RA patient and rabbit synoviocytes cell line HIG-82. Cell proliferation and viability were assessed by means of BrdU assay and MTT assay, respectively. The IC50 value (the concentration of drug necessary to induce 50% inhibition) together with confidence limits was calculated. Results: Carbamazepine inhibited proliferation of human fibroblasts and viability of HIG-82 with IC50 values of 86 μM and 82 μM, respectively. Diphenylhydantoin, valproate and phenobarbital inhibited viability of HIG-82 cells with the IC50 values of 110, 500 and 1031 μM, respectively. Conclusion: Based on these findings, it can be suggested that anti-epileptic drugs may have a disease-modifying effect on rheumatoid synovial proliferation.