ABSTRACT

It is generally perceived that colchicine is an effective anti-inflammatory agent

only in select conditions such as crystal-induced inflammatory disease, chronic

pericarditis, and familial Mediterranean fever. Although there are case reports

and small series suggesting therapeutic benefit in other disorders, compelling

data to support these claims are lacking. If this selectivity is real, one explanation

is that the drug may affect a unique pathophysiologic mechanism shared by

crystal-induced arthritis and a few other disorders, but not function as a general

anti-microtubule agent acting to depress oriented cellular motility (chemotaxis).

Alternatively, the colchicine sensitive pathway may be utilized in other inflam-

matory conditions, but in these other disorders there are redundant colchicine

insensitive pathways that mediate the inflammatory response.