Figure 5.

Serum biochemistry for liver, renal, and cardiac markers upon oral administration of celastrol. The serum levels of ALT (A), CK (B), LDH (C), urea (D), and pro-ANP (E) were measured by ELISA to evaluate liver, kidney, and cardiac toxicity. Only the levels of LDH were increased in animals treated with 7.5 μg/g/day of celastrol. Healthy N = 8, arthritic N = 10, celastrol 1 μg/g/day N = 5, celastrol 2.5 μg/g/day N = 5, celastrol 5 μg/g/day N = 5, and celastrol 7.5 μg/g/day N = 4. The data are expressed as median with interquartile range. The differences were considered as statistically significant for p < 0.05, according to Mann–Whitney tests for comparisons between healthy and arthritic groups and p < 0.0125 according to Mann–Whitney tests with Bonferroni correction for comparisons between arthritic and celastrol-treated groups. *p < 0.05 and p < 0.0125.