Potentiality and safety assessment of combination therapy with silymarin and celecoxib in osteoarthritis of rat model

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common form of arthritis leading to cartilage degeneration and inflammation. We used rat model to evaluate the protective effect of silymarin (SMN) as a known antioxidant agent individually and in combination with celecoxib (CLX) as a COX-2 inhibitor on MIA-induced arthritis. The rats were assigned into five groups (n = 6) as control, sham, and tests. The objective was to improve adverse events occurring with celecoxib in the treatment of osteoarthritis. The biochemical alterations and its recovery by silymarin and combination of silymarin and celecoxibe were assessed by measuring enzymatic and non-enzymatic mediators. In the present study, our data demonstrated the significant (P < 0.001) elevated serum levels of hyaluronidase, C-reactive protein, 5-LOX and liver function enzymes, while both CLX and SMN reduced the level of these enzymatic and non-enzymatic mediators. Taken together, the study depicted the efficiency and protective role of combination of CLX with SMN in the treatment of OA. Thus it may be a safe compound to fight arthritis.