Anti-Inflammatory and Joint-Protective Effects of Blueberries in a Monosodium Iodoacetate (MIA)-Induced Rat Model of Osteoarthritis

South SM, Crabtree K, Averitt DL, Vijayagopal P, Juma S · Nutrients

Limited and not dose-dependent, in the authors' own words. Mechanical allodynia eased only in the 10% group and only against its own baseline; joint swelling, serum hyaluronic acid, TIMP-1 and IL-1β did not change, and the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 fell. Total histology scores were lower than in untreated arthritic joints, with the individual components not reaching significance. From the group that ran the human blueberry trial, which makes it the animal half of a programme rather than an unrelated result.

Population

40 young female rats, 30 of them with monosodium iodoacetate injected into one knee

Intervention

Freeze-dried whole blueberry at 5% or 10% of the diet for 48 days

Comparator

Control diet

Limitations

Chemically induced rat OA in young lean animals, ten per group split across readouts so that pain testing ran on six and histology on five. Same laboratory as the human trial, so not independent.