Adjuvant polyarthritis. VIII. Differences in immunopathogenesis between type II collagen arthritis and adjuvant arthritis.

The severity of type II collagen-induced arthritis was found to correlate with the serum titers of anti-type II collagen antibody, but not with cell-mediated immunity to type II collagen. In contrast, no significant levels of either the humoral or the cell-mediated immunity to type II collagen were found in rats with Freund's complete adjuvant-induced arthritis. Pre-treatment of young rats with an oily preparation of type II collagen prevented the development of arthritis in these animals in response to a subsequent injection of oily preparation of type II collagen, but had no effect on the development of arthritis in response to a subsequent injection of Freund's complete adjuvant. It is concluded that while an immune response directed toward the injected type II collagen is responsible for the development of type II collagen arthritis, it does not play an important role in the induction of Freund's adjuvant-induced arthritis.