Pharmacological and biochemical activities of tenoxicam (Ro 12-0068), a new non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.

Tenoxicam, a new non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug has been compared with piroxicam and indomethacin in a range of pharmacological and biochemical inflammation test systems. In a chronic (17-day) adjuvant arthritis in the rat, tenoxicam and piroxicam were equally effective in reducing several indices of inflammation and were less ulcerogenic and better tolerated than indomethacin. The oxicams reduced the oedematous and cellular components of a carrageenan pleurisy at 4 hours while at 24 hours they increased exudate volume and selectively inhibited the accumulation of mononuclear cells. These agents also reduced the inflammatory component of a delayed hypersensitivity response to methylated bovine serum albumin in the mouse. The oxicams were about 100-fold less active than indomethacin as inhibitors of prostaglandin synthetase but all three compounds reduced about equally the release of prostaglandin E2 from phagocytosing rat PMN and interleukin 1-stimulated human rheumatoid synovial cells. The compounds had no effect on the release of superoxide anion, lysosomal enzymes or collagenase from cultured cells, neither did they inhibit isolated collagenase. Only indomethacin stabilized albumin against heat denaturation.