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.