Table 3.

Effect of prophylactic and therapeutic administration of theophylline on the pressure needed to induce a response in the right hind paw of adjuvant arthritic rats

Drug treatment	% Decrease in pressure on right hind paw
	Therapeutic		Prophylactic
	Day 30	Day 25	Day 30	Day 14
Saline-treated non-arthritic rats (group I)	3.5 ± 0.1	2.3 ± 0.1*	8 ± 0.3*	2 ± 0.1*
Untreated arthritic rats (group II)	26.7 ± 1.4	54.9 ± 3	46 ± 2.6	54.9 ± 3
Theophylline-treated (45 mg·kg−1·day−1) arthritic rats (groups III)	2 ± 0.1*	0	14 ± 0.7*	5 ± 0.2*
Theophylline-treated (30 mg·kg−1·day−1) arthritic rats (groups IV)	14 ± 0.9*	8.7 ± 0.1*	18 ± 0.9*	14 ± 0.5*
Theophylline-treated (15 mg·kg−1·day−1) arthritic rats (groups V)	12.5 ± 0.7*	10 ± 0.1*	16 ± 1.1*	12 ± 0.9*
Theophylline (30 mg·kg−1·day−1) in combination with SNP (1 mg·kg−1·day−1) (groups VI)	35.7 ± 2.1†	28.6 ± 0.3*†	28 ± 1.3*	23 ± 1.4*
Theophylline (30 mg·kg−1·day−1) in combination with SNP (0.01 mg·kg−1·day−1) (groups VII)	23 ± 1.1†	14.3 ± 0.3*	13 ± 0.9*	7 ± 0.8*†
Theophylline (30 mg·kg−1·day−1) in combination with L-NMMA (30 mg·kg−1·day−1) (groups VIII)	6 ± 0.1*†	4 ± 0.1*†	14 ± 1.2*	8 ± 1.1*†

^*P < 0.05 versus group II.

^†P < 0.05 versus groups IV.

L-NMMA, L-N^G-monomethyl arginine; SNP, sodium nitroprusside.