In this paper we report that intraperitoneal administration of
type II collagen in a soluble form protects DBA/1 mice against
collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) on subsequent arthritogenic challenge with soluble
type II collagen in adjuvant. The degree of
arthritis suppression, which is expressed in terms of reduced incidence of
arthritis, delayed onset and reduced anti-
collagen antibody titres, depends on the dose and timing of the pre-immunization
collagen injection. In order to elucidate the rôles of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes subsets in
arthritis resistance we administered
monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to these
antigenic determinants around the time of immunization with soluble
type II collagen. Anti-CD4 mAb caused abrogation of
arthritis resistance while anti-CD8 mAb was less effective. However, administration of anti-CD8 mAb two weeks after pre-immunization with soluble
collagen was very effective in reversing
arthritis resistance. From these findings we conclude that CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are involved in resistance to
arthritis though the relative importance of each subset changes during the course of the process leading to resistance to CIA.