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Anti-Inflammatory Drugs pp 92–107Cite as

Short-Term Drug Control of Crystal-Induced Inflammation

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Part of the book series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology ((HEP,volume 50 / 2))

Abstract

The constant presence of microcrystalline monosodium urate monohydrate (MSU) in joint fluid from acute gout was first documented in 1961 (McCarty and Hollander, 1961). MSU needles can be seen by ordinary light microscopy, but the strongly negative birefringence with axial extinction by compensated polarized light microscopy is a much more sensitive test that is quite specific. Van Leeuwenhoek (b. 1633) was the first to describe urate crystals, having obtained them from a draining tophus (McCarty, 1970a). He was unaware of their chemical composition, as uric (lithic) acid was not discovered until a century later (Scheele, 1776). It is of historic interest that A. B. Garrod had used polarized light microscopic inspection of fresh tissue sections cut by hand with a razor blade to identify urate crystals (Garrod, 1876). He wrote that “... in the constancy of such deposition lies the clue that has long been wanting; the occurrence of the deposit is at once pathognomonic and separates gout from every other disease which at first sight may appear allied to it.” Phagocytosis of MSU crystals by both polymorphonuclear and mononuclear cells was first described in recently erupted human skin tophi by the Viennese dermatologist Gustav Riehl (Riehl, 1897), a phenomenon re-discovered later in gouty joint fluid (McCarty, 1962).

From the Rheumatology Section, Department of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8700 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226. Supported in part by grants AM 13069 and AM 05621.

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  1. D. J. McCarty
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Wellcome Research Laboratories, Langley Court, BR3 3BS, Beckenham, Kent, UK

    John R. Vane

  2. Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, CEP 14.100, São Paulo, Brazil

    Sergio H. Ferreira

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McCarty, D.J. (1979). Short-Term Drug Control of Crystal-Induced Inflammation. In: Vane, J.R., Ferreira, S.H. (eds) Anti-Inflammatory Drugs. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 50 / 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66891-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66891-3_4

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