A randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, evaluating the sesamin supplement effects on proteolytic enzymes, inflammatory markers, and clinical indices in women with rheumatoid arthritis.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Copper (Supplement) in the context of rheumatoid arthritis in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Based on the antiinflammatory properties of sesame, this study was conducted to evaluate the sesamin supplement effects on serum levels of some proteolytic enzymes, inflammatory biomarkers, and clinical indices in women with rheumatoid arthritis.

Why It Was Studied

Inflammation is one of the main characteristics of rheumatoid arthritis.

In this randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, 44 patients were randomly divided in intervention and control groups.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 44 patients taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, women only.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Copper (Supplement) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Copper (Supplement), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Copper (Supplement) could be set against what happens without it.

Serum levels of proteolytic enzymes (hyaluronidase, aggrecanase, and matrix metalloproteinases-3) and inflammatory biomarkers (hs-CRP, IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and cyclooxygenase-2) were measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method at the beginning and end of the study.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Antioxidants, Arthritis, Rheumatoid, Biomarkers, Dietary Supplements, Dioxoles, Inflammation and Lignans.

The authors tagged it with the keywords inflammatory factors, proteolytic enzymes, rheumatoid arthritis and sesamin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Copper (Supplement) in 44 patients in people with rheumatoid arthritis.

The publication is from 2019 (Phytotherapy research : PTR), a journal based in England.

More context: the Copper (Supplement) compound page, Rheumatoid arthritis research.