BASIC STUDIES REGARDING RHEUMATOID-ARTHRITIS AS A COLLAGEN AUTO-IMMUNE DISEASE

  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 37  (5-6) , 131-147
Abstract
Clinical and experimental data establishing a hypothesis about rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as a collagen auto-immune disease are reviewed. Demonstration of rheumatoid synovial collagenase, collagen antibodies in the serum and the synovial fluid of patients with RA, collagen inclusion bodies and collagen-anticollagen immune complexes in synovial fluid cells and the synovial fluid of patients with RA, the in vitro demonstration of the inflammatory effect of such complexes, and the induction of experimental arthritis by these complexes are included. Each section contains tabular summaries of various investigations. A relation between these observations and the conclusions deduced from them, the appearance of rheumatoid factors in RA and the pathogenic effect of rheumatoid factor-gammaglobulin aggregates is considered.