Susceptibility to adjuvant arthritis in DA and F344 rats. A dominant trait controlled by an autosomal gene locus linked to the major histocompatibility complex.

The hereditary of adjuvant-induced arthritis in rats of the DA and Fisher 344 strains was examined. Development of arthritic lesions in response to a single injection of supplemented Freund's complete adjuvant has been found to be controlled by an autosomal, dominant gene locus, Ar. The capacity to respond was present in DA rats and absent in our Fisher rats. Ar has been found to be linked to the major histocompatibility complex genes with which it exhibits a high rate of recombination.