Evidence of autoantibodies in rats with adjuvant-induced arthritis.

The adjuvant arthritis, induced by subdermal injection of heat-killed mycobacteria dispersed in oil, is a form of chronic arthritis in rats. In this paper, the production of autoantibodies against immunoglobulins in rats with adjuvant arthritis was examined by means of the latex agglutination technique. A significant agglutination titre was found in arthritic rats on day 14 of induction and these values decreased throughout the studied period. The positive results in arthritic animals were 100, 86, 86, 29 and 29% on 14, 21, 28, 35 and 42 day after the induction, respectively. These results were significantly higher than those found in control animals. Correlation between latex titre and adjuvant-induced systemic swelling was observed. Treatment with benoxaprofen from day 14, produced a decrease in the latex titre and the values reached normal levels after two weeks of treatment.