[The effects of a single active ingredient (T4) of Tripterygium Wilfordii Hook on the production of tumor necrosis factor by the peripheral blood mononuclear cells and synovium cells of rheumatoid arthritis patients].

Encouraged by good therapeutic results of the semipurified preparations of Tripterygium Wilfordii Hook (TWH) (code name T4) a single-active ingredient of TWH with the code name of T4 was obtained. The in vitro effects of T4 on the bioactivity of TNF produced by PBMC of normal subjects (n = 10) and RA patients (n = 6) or the RA digested synovium single cells (DSSC) were studied. The results showed that under pretreatment of PBMC of healthy persons with T4 (35 ng/ml) for two hours, TNF were reduced to 36.13 +/- 1.75% in comparison with the control of 63.33 +/- 2.51% (P < 0.001), with an inhibition rate of 40.31%. Similarly, the inhibition rate for the PBMC of RA patients (P < 0.001), was 25.54%. The fact that coculture of PBMC and T4 for 6 hours instead of treatment with T4 for 2 hours caused an inhibition rate of 40.51% (P < 0.01), might indicate that time of interaction was also a factor of importance. T4 also reduced TNF secretion by RA-DSSC from 72.1 +/- 6.1% to 51.6 +/- 2.0% with an inhibition rate of 28.4%. The aformentioned indicates that T4 appears to possess suppressive actions on production of TNF by PBMC and DSSC of RA patients. Therefore, it is possible that T4 may be used clinically for RA patients.