Establishment and Immunological Evaluation of Mouse Model of Collagen Induced Arthritis

Objective Collagen induced arthritis(CIA) is an ideal model for studying the mechanism of rheumatoid arthritis(RA) and exploring the anti-RA drug candidates.However,there are few studies about the systemic immune abnormality of CIA mice as yet.Thus,we established CIA model using collagen II and evaluated it.Methods Blending collagen II and Complete Freund's adjuvant and emulsifying them completely,then injected them to male DBA/1 mice at root of the tail.After 20 days,repeated this process.The swelling of the claw were determined using micrometer.ELISA,Luminex and αLISA were employed to measure the collagen II-specific antibodies and multiple cytokines.Results Beginning from 23 days of injection,red swelling of the claw skin appeared in some mice.At the end of experiment,100% mice developed arthritis symptoms.The spleen index of CIA mice increased significantly,accompanied by augmented spleen lymphocyte proliferation reaction to collagen II.At the same time,multiple cytokine levels in the supernatant of cultured spleen lymphocytes increased than control,such as IFN-γ,TNF-α and IL-1β.In addition,there was high amount collagen II-specific antibodie in the serum of CIA mice.Conclusions CIA mice characterized by abnormal activation of T cell,especially Th1 cell,with a high incidence,is a suitable RA model.