Resumo: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a disease of wide global prevalence, characterized by an intense, chronic and progressive immune and inflammatory response dysfunction. In relation to the pharmacological treatment by antirheumatic drugs modifying the disease, serious side effects can occur and a limited number of studies have been carried out for its chronic use. Based on the homeopathic theory, we proposed a homeopathic formulation of Rhus toxicodendron (RT) and Ruta graveolens (RG) at $ D9 $ as an alternative treatment of the adjuvant-induced arthritis model, using ibuprofen as a positive control. In this experiment we analyzed the paw volume of 38 rats of the Holtzmann strain divided into the categories Control, AIA, AIRC3, AIRC6, AIRD5 and AIIB. However, the DUNNETT statistical test of the it nparcomp package of software R and a Gamma model was adopted. In this way homeopathic drugs showed similar effects to ibuprofen in relation to contralateral paw edema (p> 0.05), ibuprofen proved to be effective in preventing joint alteration (p <0.05). Preservation of the meniscus was obtained only by treatments with RG and ibuprofen (p <0.05). Both homeopathic treatments reduced plasma ILL-1\beta$ levels (p <0.05). Considering thymic involution, all three treatments in this study were protective, but RT revealed an interesting proliferative effect through thymic cell count (p <0.05). These drugs should be further investigated for antirheumatic activity, since positive effects were found in this study.
Keywords: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Gamma Model, Histology of joint and Thymic cells