II型コラーゲン分子上の関節炎起因抗原arthritogenic epitope (s)

Purified chick type II collagen (CII) was cleaved with cyanogen bromide and the resulting CB-peptides isolated and renatured. Sera from collagen-induced arthritic DBA/1 mice and patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were tested for the reactivity with each CB-peptide and mouse or human type II collagens (MII and HII, respectively) . The mouse sera preferentially recognized CB-11, 10 and 8, in that order, and there was a positive correlation between reactivity with CB-11 and MII, but no correlation was found with any other peptides. CB-11, 10 and 8 were also used for immunization to test the immunogenesity and arthritogenesity. Antibodies were detected in response to each of these peptides, but arthritis developed only in mice immunized with CB-11.RA sera which are reactive with HII crossreacted with CII at a correlation coefficient of 0.97 (P<0.001) . And the sera mainly recognized CB-11 and 10, indicating the common epitopes on HII and CII molecules are located on the region of CB-11 and 10. We conclude that a major immunogenic and arthritogenic epitope on type II collagen resides in the region of the molecule represented by CB-11 in collagen-induced arthritis. And a similar immune-recognition should be involved in pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis in human.