Experimental Arthritis (Subscribe)  

Adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA), the first experimental arthritis model, was described in 1956, at a time when experimental autoimmune diseases affecting the central nervous system, peripheral nervous system, thyroid, and eye had been described, and autoimmunity began to be considered a significant mechanism in the pathogenesis of organ-specific inflammatory disease. AIA,...

Adjuvant arthritis (AA) is a frequently used model of experimental arthritis. Because of its histopathology, which is reminiscent of rheumatoid arthritis in humans, AA is used as a model for the development of novel anti-inflammatory drugs. Recently, it has become evident that AA is a typical T-cell-mediated autoimmune condition. Therefore,...

Mast cells are present in limited numbers in normal human synovium, but in rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory joint diseases this population can expand to constitute 5% or more of all synovial cells. Recent investigations in a murine model have demonstrated that mast cells can have a critical role in...

Models of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in laboratory animals are important tools for research into pathogenic mechanisms and the development of effective, safe therapies. Rodent models (rats and mice) have provided important information about the pathogenic mechanisms. However, the evolutionary distance between rodents and humans hampers the translation of scientific principles...

T-cell responses to antigens are classified on the basis of the cytokines they produce as either Th1 (IFN-gamma, IL-2) or Th2 (IL-4, IL-10), with these Th types being indicative of either cell-mediated or antibody-mediated responses, respectively. Using this classification, T-cell responses in MHC-class-II-restricted autoimmune diseases appear to be predominantly of...

CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells are avidly studied because they modulate immune responses. Their possible role in autoimmunity and more specifically in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been highlighted by a string of reports, one of which is in the last issue of Arthritis Research & Therapy. There are, however, key questions...

Animal models of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have provided substantial insights into basic pathogenic mechanisms of chronic inflammatory arthritis and autoimmune disease in general. Of the variety of models reported, collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) has been the most characterized in terms of both its pathogenesis and its underlying immunological basis. Collagen-induced arthritis...

Recently it was shown that G6PI immunization induces severe symmetrical peripheral polyarthritis in genetically unaltered DBA/I mice. In that model CD4+ T cells are necessary not only for the induction but also for the effector phase of arthritis. Here we review the pathomechanisms that lead from systemic autoreactivity to arthritis...

This review describes the role of IL-17 in the pathogenesis of destructive arthritis with a major focus on studies in vivo in arthritis models. From these studies in vivo it can be concluded that IL-17 becomes significant when T cells are a major element of the arthritis process. Moreover, IL-17...