| Summary: | Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory autoimmune polyarthritis. Although, it is not a CNS involvement disease, affective disorders and alterations of cognitive functions occur in rheumatic patients and may vary in their relevance from serious psychosis to memory disorders. Aetiology of sickness behaviour in arthritis is not known yet. Aims: The aim of the present work was to study incidence of behavioural components of sickness in the early phase of experimental arthritis, and to confirm an association between behavioural components of sickness and neuro- inflammatory / chemical alterations in the hippocampus in this phase of the disease. Methods: Experimental arthritis was induced to Lewis rats by a single injection of cFA. First four days of experimental arthritis were studied. The body weight and food intake were measured daily. Pain reactivity, behaviour and biochemical analysis in plasma and hippocampus were done on day 2 and on day 4. Pain reactivity was measured separately on limbs and on tail in plantar test. Spatial learning abilities and swim strategies were examined in MWM. Anxiety behaviour was tested in EPM and open field tests. In plasma, concentration of CRP, albumin, ACTH, corticosterone, leptin, ghrelin were estimated. In hippocampus, mRNA gene expression of IL-1β, IL-...
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