Intestinal Dysbiosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Link between Gut Microbiota and the Pathogenesis of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Table 3

Summary of studies evaluating the effect of probiotics on the level of rheumatoid arthritis activity.

Author (year of publication)	Design	Population and intervention	Outcomes
Hatakka et al. [89]	Clinical trial	Lactobacillus group (). Placebo group ()	There were no statistically significant differences in: CRP, ESR, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, and HAQ
Pineda et al. [86]	Clinical trial	15 subjects Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 administered for 3 months versus 14 subjects in the control group	Probiotics did not statistically improve the percentage of ACR 20 response (20% versus 7%, )
Alipour et al. [84]	Clinical trial	22 subjects with Lactobacillus casei versus 24 subjects with placebo	Statistically significant decrease in CRP level, count of inflamed and painful joints and in DAS-28
Vaghef-Mehrabany et al. [85]	Clinical trial	22 subjects with Lactobacillus casei versus 24 subjects with placebo (maltodextrin)	Statistically significant decrease in level of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-12 count of inflamed and painful joints and in DAS-28

CRP: C-reactive protein; DAS28: disease activity score-28; IL: interleukin; ESR: erythrocyte sedimentation rate; ACR: American College of Rheumatology.