Fig. 2

Treatment with EC-18 suppressed the levels of inflammatory cytokines in vivo. The vehicle only, tofacitinib (15 mg/kg), baricitinib (3 mg/kg), or EC-18 (250 mg/kg) was orally administered to mice once daily from day 21 after the first immunization. At 60 days after the first immunization with CII, the mice were sacrificed and examined to assess changes in the number of cytokine-positive cells in joint synovial membrane. Sections of joint tissues of subjects with the average arthritis score of each group (n = 5/group) were stained with antibodies against interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and IL-17 (original magnification ×400). Joint tissue from normal mice was used as a control (n = 3). The graphs present the number of Ab-positive cells for each cytokine. *P < 0.05 vs. vehicle-treated control group