Adjuvant polyarthritis. vii. The role of type ii collagen in pathogenesis

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Abstract
The development of immune response in rats directed toward EL4 cells, after the injection of EL4 cells suspended in a saline/oil emulsion, was enhanced by the incorporation of Mycobacterium into the saline/oil emulsion; the incorporation of type II collagen into the saline–acetic acid/oil emulsion in concentrations ranging from 0.5–25 μg/ml had no apparent effect on the development of immune response. The incorporation of type II collagen into the saline–acetic acid/oil emulsion at higher concentrations (100 μg and 1.0 mg/ml) significantly suppressed both the humoral and the cell-mediated immune response. Pretreatment of rats with the maximal subarthritogenic dose of complete Freund's adjuvant prevented the development of arthritis in response to a subsequent injection of an arthritogenic dose of the same adjuvant, but had no effect on the development of type II collagen–induced arthritis. These observations suggest that adjuvant arthritis and the type II collagen–induced arthritis are distinctly different diseases.