Pretreatment of rats with anticollagen IgG renders them resistant to active type II collagen arthritis.

Intravenous administration of 24 mg of affinity-purified rat anticollagen IgG induced a polyarthritis in recipient rats within 48 hr. This polyarthritis was transient and hind paw diameters returned to normal values within 12 days. IgG and C3 could be detected on the articular cartilage by immunofluorescence up to 16 days after antibody administration. Administration of 24 mg of rat anticollagen IgG to these antibody-treated rats did not induce a second phase of polyarthritis. In addition, recovered rats that had been pretreated with antibody were resistant to arthritis when Type II collagen was administered intradermally. In these rats, serum anticollagen IgG levels were significantly lower than in control rats which were not treated with antibody. Pretreatment of rats with anticollagen IgG did not have an effect on the severity or the incidence of adjuvant-induced arthritis. In addition, pretreatment of rats with anticollagen IgG did not have an effect on the development of a humoral response to ovalbumin.