Introduction
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a progressive systemic autoimmune disease with a prevalence of about 0.5 to 1% [
1] and it is characterized by symmetrical polyarthritis. Several findings indicate the involvement of sex hormones in RA. For example, the female to male incidence ratio is 4 to 5:1 before 50 years of age, and 2:1 for patients with a later onset [
1,
2], and the peak incidence in women coincides with the onset of menopause [
3]. Chronic inflammation leads to destruction of joint cartilage and periarticular bone, as well as the development of generalized bone loss. The prevalence of osteoporosis is more than 50% in postmenopausal patients with RA [
4,
5]. Glucocorticoid treatment is often used to suppress inflammation in autoimmune diseases [
6], but unfortunately prolonged use of glucocorticoids is associated with the development of osteoporosis and increased risk of fractures [
7]. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is used to treat postmenopausal osteoporosis, and to compensate for the loss of natural hormones, but it is no longer recommended for long-term therapy due to the risk of serious side effects. However, HRT has also been shown to ameliorate RA, with decreased joint destruction, reduced inflammation, increased bone mineral density (BMD), and better patient health assessment [
8]. Raloxifene (Ral) is a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) approved for the treatment of patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis [
9], and in the USA it is also approved as prophylaxis for invasive breast cancer [
10]. We have previously shown that treatment with Ral or 17β-estradiol (E2) results in a reduced frequency of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), suppressed disease severity, preserved joint histology, and maintained BMD [
11]. These effects are also seen during long-term treatment, when therapy is started in patients with already established disease [
12].
In this study we investigated the effects of combined treatment with Ral and glucocorticoids, or estradiol and glucocorticoids, on the development of arthritis and osteoporosis. CIA is a well-established animal model resembling RA [
13]. CIA was induced in female mice that were either sham-operated or had been ovariectomized in order to assimilate a postmenopausal status in humans. We have previously shown decreased trabecular BMD in arthritic OVX mice, compared with arthritic mice with preserved endogenous estrogen production [
14]. In this study, we found that treatment with the corticosteroid dexamethasone (Dex) protects against joint destruction and ameliorates the clinical signs of arthritis, although it does not prevent bone loss. However, the addition of Ral or E2 to the Dex treatment results in completely preserved BMD and protects from osteoporosis.
Materials and methods
Mice
The ethical committee for animal experiments at Gothenburg University approved this study. Female DBA/1 mice (TaconicM&B A/S, Ry, Denmark) were electronically tagged and kept, 5 to 10 animals per cage, under standard environmental conditions, and fed standard laboratory chow and tap water ad libitum.
Ovariectomy
Ovarietomy (OVX) and sham operation were performed at 9 to 10 weeks of age. Ovaries were removed through a midline incision of the skin, and flank incisions of the peritoneum. The skin incision was then closed with metallic clips. Sham-operated animals had their ovaries exposed but not removed. Surgery was performed after the mice were anesthetized with ketamine (PfizerAB, Täby, Sweden) and medetomidin (OrionPharma, Espoo, Finland), or during Isofluran inhalation (Isofluran Baxter, Baxter Medical AB, Kista, Sweden). Carprofen (OrionPharma, Sollentuna, Sweden) was used as post-operative pain relief.
Induction and evaluation of arthritis
One to two weeks after surgery the mice were immunized with 100 μg chicken collagen type II (CII) (SigmaAldrich, St Louis, MO, USA) dissolved in 0.1 M acetic acid and emulsified with an equal volume of incomplete Freund's adjuvant (SigmaAldrich, St Louis, MO, USA) supplemented with 0.5 mg/ml
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (SigmaAldrich, St Louis, MO, USA). A total volume of 100 μl was injected subcutaneously at the base of the tail. Twenty one days after the first immunization, mice received a booster injection with CII emulsified in incomplete Freund's adjuvant. The animals were evaluated every two to three days for frequency and severity of arthritis until termination of the experiments. Arthritis was considered present when signs of arthritis were identified in one joint for two consecutive assessments, or in more than one joint. Scoring was performed in a blinded way without knowledge of the previous scores. Severity was graded as described previously [
15], scoring 1 to 3 in each paw (maximum of 12 points per mouse) as follows: 1, swelling or erythema in one joint; 2, swelling or erythema in two joints; 3, severe swelling of the entire paw or ankylosis.
Hormones and treatment
Mice were given intraperitoneal (ip) injections five days per week of the synthetic corticosteroid Dex (Oradexon®, Organon, Gothenburg, Sweden) (125 μg/mouse/day) dissolved in 0.9% sodium chloride (NaCl), subcutaneous (sc) injections of E2 (SigmaAldrich, St Louis, MO, USA) (1.0 μg/mouse/day) dissolved in Miglyol 812 (OmyaPeralta GmbH, Hamburg, Germany), or sc injections of Ral (SigmaAldrich, St Louis, MO, USA) (120 μg/mouse/day) dissolved in Miglyol 812. Control mice received ip and sc injections of 0.9% NaCl (100 μl/mouse/day) and Miglyol 812 (100 μl/mouse/day), respectively. Treatment with Dex, E2, Ral, or vehicle was started when the first mice had started to develop arthritis (day 22 to 23), and continued until termination of the experiments (day 44 to 49).
Tissue collection and histologic examination
At the termination of the experiments, mice were anesthetized for blood withdrawal, and then euthanized by cervical dislocation. Sera were individually collected and stored at -20°C until used. Successful removal of the ovaries at the castration procedure was confirmed by weighing the uteri. One femur was placed in 70% ethanol for analysis of BMD, and the other was used for flow cytometry of bone marrow cells. Paws were placed in 4% paraformaldehyde, decalcified, and embedded in paraffin. Sections were stained with H&E and encoded before examination. In sections from each animal, the proximal and distal parts of all four paws were graded separately on a scale of 0 to 4, with the score then divided by two, which yielded a maximum histologic destruction score of 16 points per mouse, assessed as follows: 1 = synovial hypertrophy, 2 = pannus, erosions of cartilage, 3 = erosions of bone, 4 = complete ankylosis.
Assessment of bone mineral density
One femur was subjected to a peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) scan with a Stratec pQCT XCT Research M, software version 5.4B (Norland, Fort Atkinson, WI) at a resolution of 70 μm, as described previously [
16]. Trabecular BMD was determined with a metaphyseal scan at a point 3% of the length of the femur from the growth plate. The inner 45% of the area was defined as the trabecular bone compartment.
Serologic markers of cartilage and bone remodelling
For measurement of cartilage destruction, serum levels of cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) were determined with an Animal COMP® ELISA kit (AnaMar Medical AB, Uppsala, Sweden) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Bone resorption was assessed by serum levels of type I collagen fragments using the RatLaps ELISA kit (Nordic Bioscience Diagnostics, Herlev, Denmark) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The detection limits for COMP and RatLaps were 2 U/L and 6 ng/ml, respectively.
Serologic analyses of anti-CII antibodies and IL-6
For quantification of serum IgG CII antibodies, 96-well plates (Nunc, Roskilde, Denmark) were coated overnight at 4°C with 1 μg/ml of native CII (SigmaAldrich, St Louis, MO, USA). Plates were blocked for one hour at room temperature using 0.5% BSA in PBS. Samples were diluted in 0.5% BSA-PBS, added to the plates and incubated for two hours at room temperature. Biotinylated F(ab')2 fragments of goat anti-mouse IgG (Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, Suffolk, UK) was used as secondary antibody. Development was performed using extravidin peroxidase (SigmaAldrich, St Louis, MO, USA) and the enzyme substrate 3,3',5,5'-Tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) (SigmaAldrich, St Louis, MO, USA). The reaction was stopped using 1 M H2SO4 and the absorbance was measured at 405 nm in a SPECTRAmax spectrophotometer. Serum levels of IL-6 were measured using a BD™ CBA mouse inflammation kit (BD Biosciences, San Jose, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The detection limit for IL-6 was 5 pg/ml.
Flow cytometry analysis of bone marrow cells
One femur was flushed with 2 ml of PBS through the bone cavity to harvest bone marrow cells. A Tris-buffered 0.83% NH4Cl solution, pH 7.29 was used to lyse erythrocytes, and the cells were then washed and re-suspended in fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS)-buffer (PBS supplemented with 1% fetal calf serum and 0.1% NaAz). Labelling of cell surface markers was performed using anti-CD19 PE, anti-CD3 APC, anti-CD4 PerCP, and anti-CD8 FITC antibodies (BD, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA).
Statistical analysis
The Kruskall-Wallis test followed by a post hoc test were used for comparisons between all groups in each experiment. A P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. The Graph Pad Prism 5 program was used for the statistical evaluations and calculations of area under the curve (AUC), according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Discussion
Estrogens can influence the pathogenesis of many inflammatory diseases including RA [
19]. The beneficial effects of E2 on the development of murine experimental arthritis, and on osteoporosis associated with arthritis and ovariectomy, have been previously well documented [
14,
20,
21]. Nevertheless, long-term use of estrogen in humans is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer and thrombosis, and is therefore no longer recommended [
22,
23]. The SERM Ral is approved for treatment of patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis, and is also approved as prophylaxis for invasive breast cancer in the USA. However, studies have shown that treatment with Ral increases the risk of deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism [
24]. We recently investigated if Ral was as beneficial as E2 on arthritis-development and inflammation-induced bone loss. Indeed, our studies revealed that Ral reduces the frequency and severity of CIA, and preserves the bone [
11,
12]. Those results were successfully repeated in this study.
Glucocorticoids are potent anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive agents that are widely used to treat both acute and chronic inflammation, such as RA. However, long-term treatment with glucocorticoids in humans is associated with severe side effects including metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease, avascular necrosis, and osteoporosis [
25‐
28]. The aim of the current study was to investigate if addition of Ral or E2 to ovariectomized Dex-treated arthritic mice could prevent bone loss while simultaneously ameliorating the arthritic disease. In clinical trials, the addition of estrogen replacement therapy has been shown to have positive effects on arthritis-associated and glucocorticoid-induced bone loss [
8,
29,
30]. In addition, we have previously shown that treatment with the combination of Dex + E2 have additive suppressive effects on the T cell-mediated delayed type hypersensitivity reaction in mice [
31]. However, the effects of combined treatment with Ral and Dex on ovariectomized mice with inflammation-induced osteoporosis have not previously been investigated.
In this study we show that treatment with Dex alone significantly reduced the frequency and severity of arthritis as well as the histologic evaluation scores of the joints compared with control treated mice. The combination of Dex + Ral or Dex + E2 completely abrogated any signs of the disease and the median histologic joint destruction score was kept at 0. Previous studies have demonstrated that mice are susceptible to glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis [
32,
33]. Interestingly, in this experimental setup we did not find any differences in trabecular BMD between the OVX/Veh and the OVX/Dex group. This could be due to the fact that all mice were ovariectomized four weeks prior to the treatment start, and therefore likely already had low BMD at the start of the treatment. In spite of this, the combined treatment with Ral + Dex or E2 + Dex resulted in preserved BMD at levels similar to the groups that received treatment with Ral or E2 alone. COMP and RatLaps are markers for cartilage destruction and bone destruction, respectively. Mice treated with Dex alone or Dex + Ral displayed low or undetectable levels of COMP and RatLaps compared with controls, reflecting the low levels of joint and bone destruction in these groups.
The mechanisms for the anti-inflammatory effects of glucocorticoids involve inhibition of vascular permeability that occurs as an inflammatory response, as well as decreased leukocyte migration into inflamed sites [
34]. The effects of estrogens on inflammation is a still unresolved paradox where estrogens can have both anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory roles depending on, for example, the immune stimulus, the concentration of the estrogen, the target organ, the specific disease, and the cell types involved [
19]. The beneficial effects of estrogen on arthritis are well documented [
14,
20,
21]; however, the mechanisms are largely unknown. The levels of anti-CII antibodies and IL-6 can be used as markers for specific and generalized inflammation in CIA. In this study the levels of anti-CII antibodies were significantly decreased in mice treated with Dex alone or with the combination of Dex + Ral compared with controls. In addition, IL-6 was undetectable in the majority of mice treated with Dex or Dex + Ral.
Glucocorticoids have pro-apoptotic effects on early progenitor B cells in the bone marrow [
18,
35], as well as on immature double positive T cells in the thymus [
17,
35]. In contrast, mature single positive thymocytes and peripheral T cells are less sensitive to glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis [
35]. We have previously shown that treatment with E2 or Ral reduces the number of double positive T cells in the thymus as well as the frequency of B cells in the bone marrow [
36,
37]. As expected, in this study Dex or Dex + Ral treatment resulted in a significant reduction of CD19+ bone marrow cells compared with controls (Figure
5a), while there was only a tendency towards a reduction of CD3+ bone marrow cells (Figure
5b). Interestingly, when the CD3+ bone marrow cells were divided into CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, Dex or Dex + Ral treatment resulted in a decrease in CD4+ T cells and an increase in CD8+ T cells compared with controls. The reason for this discrepancy is unknown; however, we speculate that mature CD4+ T cells are sensitive to glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis while CD8+ T cells are not.
The mechanisms behind the ameliorating effects of E2 or Ral on arthritis, and their anabolic effects on the skeleton, are to a large extent unknown. We have previously shown that signalling via estrogen receptor (ER) α, but not ERβ or GPR30, protects against ovariectomy-induced trabecular bone loss and ameliorates CIA [
38‐
41]. Ral has been shown to bind with high affinity to ERα and functions as an estrogen agonist in bone and on serum lipids, but acts as an antagonist in uterus and breast tissue [
42‐
46]. It is therefore reasonable to believe that the protective effect on bone and the arthritic disease after treatment with the combination of Dex and Ral is due to the stimulating effect of Ral on ERα.
Bisphosphonates reduce bone turnover by altering osteoclast activity and are often considered first-line therapy for glucocorticoid-induced and inflammation-induced osteoporosis [
47]. Given the results in this study, we speculate that combined treatment with glucocorticoids and Ral in postmenopausal RA patients might be an excellent alternative to treatment with glucocorticoids and bisphosphonates. The next step will be to perform clinical studies in order to reveal the effects of treatment with a combination of glucocorticoids and Ral in postmenopausal RA patients.
Numerous new SERMs are currently undergoing clinical development for the prevention and/or treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis [
48]. For example, lasofoxifene was recently described to be associated with reduced risks of fractures, ER-positive breast cancer, coronary heart disease, and stroke in postmenopausal patients with osteoporosis [
49]. In addition, bazedoxifene was shown to significantly reduce the risk of fractures in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, as well as prevent bone loss and reduce bone turnover equally well as Ral [
50,
51]. If these new SERMs have similar anti-arthritic effects as Ral, and if the combination with glucocorticoids has similar effects as we have shown in this study, remains to be investigated.
Acknowledgements
We thank Margareta Rosenkvist, Berit Eriksson, Anette Hansevi, Maud Petersson and Malin Erlandsson for excellent technical assistance. This study was supported by grants from the Medical Faculty of Göteborg University (ALF), Göteborg Medical Society, King GustavV's 80 years' foundation, the Sahlgrenska Foundation, the NovoNordic Foundation, the Börje Dahlin foundation, the Association against Rheumatism, Reumaforskningsfond Margareta, the COMBINE network and the Swedish Research Council.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
HC and CO participated in study design, interpretation of data and manuscript preparation. MKL aided with analysis of data. AK and AA aided with acquisition of data. The study was performed mainly by UI and CJ. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.