Collagen metabolism in adjuvant-induced arthritis in the rat.

The adjuvant arthritis of the rat is a systemic disease afflicting the musculoskeletal structures, accompanied by a number of visceral manifestations (Pearson, 1956; Pearson and Wood, 1959). It has been receiving considerable attention in studies of the factors that may influence the development and course of the rheumatic diseases in man (Leader, Gorham, and Wagner, 1967). This experimental arthritis often serves for testing the efficacy of anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive agents (Currey and Ziff, 1966; Ward and Cloud, 1966; Winter and Nuss, 1966; Rosenthale and Nagra, 1967; Winder, Lembke, and Stephens, 1969). Our present knowledge of the pathogenesis of the adjuvant arthritis indicates that this experimental disease is a generalized immunological cell-mediated response to an antigen present in mycobacteria. The systemic character of the disease and its common features with human disease instigated our studies of the metabolic turnover of collagen in rats with adjuvant arthritis. We were interested in learning the reactions shown by this essential protein component of connective tissue during various phases of the arthritic process. Up to the present, only the metabolic turnover of the matrix mucopolysaccharides occurring directly within the inflammatory focus located in the rat limb, has been described (Gietka, 1969).