Persistence of Antigen in Experimental Allergic Monoarthritis

Abstract

The chronic experimental arthritis produced by intra-articular injection of soluble antigens into previously immunized rabbits has many features in common with rheumatoid arthritis: it is chronic, it is immunologically induced and the histological picture of the synovitis is similar to that seen in rheumatoid arthritis (1, 2). In this experimental model it has been previously shown in our laboratory that antigen and antibody, in the form of immune complexes persist in the inflamed joint for long periods of time localized almost entirely within the collagenous tissues: articular cartilage, menisci and intra-articular ligaments (1, 3). It was also shown that the lymphocytes and plasma cells accumulating in the chronically inflamed synovium synthesized large amounts of specific antibody to the antigen injected for prolonged periods of time (2). It was concluded that the persisting antigen was responsible for the maintenance of the local synthesis of specific antibody. The present work was designed to investigate the possible role of the immune complexes trapped in collagenous tissues in the induction of acute and chronic inflammation.