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Anti-inflammatory effect as a mechanism of effectiveness underlying the clinical benefits of pelotherapy in osteoarthritis patients: regulation of the altered inflammatory and stress feedback response

International Journal of Biometeorology volume 61, pages 1777–1785 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

The purpose of the present investigation was to evaluate whether an anti-inflammatory effect together with an improvement of the regulation of the interaction between the inflammatory and stress responses underlies the clinical benefits of pelotherapy in osteoarthritis (OA) patients. This study evaluated the effects of a 10-day cycle of pelotherapy at the spa centre ‘El Raposo’ (Spain) in a group of 21 OA patients diagnosed with primary knee OA. Clinical assessments included pain intensity using a visual analog scale; pain, stiffness and physical function using the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index; and health-related quality of life using the EuroQol-5D questionnaire. Serum inflammatory cytokine levels (IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-8, IL-6, IL-10 and TGF-β) were evaluated using the Bio-Plex® Luminex® system. Circulating neuroendocrine-stress biomarkers, such as cortisol and extracellular 72 kDa heat shock protein (eHsp72), were measured by ELISA. After the cycle of mud therapy, OA patients improved the knee flexion angle and OA-related pain, stiffness and physical function, and they reported a better health-related quality of life. Serum concentrations of IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-8, IL-6 and TGF-β, as well as eHsp72, were markedly decreased. Besides, systemic levels of cortisol increased significantly. These results confirm that the clinical benefits of mud therapy may well be mediated, at least in part, by its systemic anti-inflammatory effects and neuroendocrine-immune regulation in OA patients. Thus, mud therapy could be an effective alternative treatment in the management of OA.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the Gobierno de Extremadura-FEDER (GR 15041, GR EE-14-0082-4). Gálvez I is recipient of a ‘Formación del Profesorado Universitario (FPU)’ pre-doctoral contract (FPU15/02395) from the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Spain. Funding sources had no role in the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of the data or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

We are grateful to the Facility of Bioscience Applied Techniques (STAB, University of Extremadura, Spain) and the spa centre ‘El Raposo’ for technical and human support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Group in Immunophysiology, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Extremadura, Avda. Elvas s/n, 06071, Badajoz, Spain

    E. Ortega, I. Gálvez & M. D. Hinchado

  2. Department of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain

    J. Guerrero

  3. Research Group in Immunophysiology, Department of Nursing, University Center of Plasencia, University of Extremadura, Plasencia, Spain

    L. Martín-Cordero

  4. Research Group in Immunophysiology, Department of Medical-Surgical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain

    S. Torres-Piles

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  1. E. Ortega
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  2. I. Gálvez
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Correspondence to I. Gálvez.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Ortega, E., Gálvez, I., Hinchado, M.D. et al. Anti-inflammatory effect as a mechanism of effectiveness underlying the clinical benefits of pelotherapy in osteoarthritis patients: regulation of the altered inflammatory and stress feedback response. Int J Biometeorol 61, 1777–1785 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-017-1361-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-017-1361-x

Keywords

  • Osteoarthritis
  • Balneotherapy
  • Peloids
  • Cytokines
  • Cortisol
  • eHsp72