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Protocol for the induction of arthritis in C57BL/6 mice

Nature Protocols volume 3, pages 612–618 (2008)Cite this article

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Abstract

Collagen-induced arthritis is a well-validated, but strain-dependent mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis, with H-2q and H-2r strains showing the greatest degree of susceptibility. This protocol describes the induction of arthritis in the C57BL/6 strain (H-2b), which forms the genetic background of the majority of genetically modified strains. This protocol involves purification of type II collagen from chicken sternums, immunization of mice, clinical assessment of arthritis and analysis of T- and B-cell responses to type II collagen. Key aspects of the protocol are the need to use chicken collagen for immunization and the importance of avoiding aggressive behavior in males. The incidence of arthritis varies from 50 to 80% and is milder than the classical collagen-induced arthritis model. This procedure takes ∼3 months to complete.

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Figure 1: Immunization of mice.
Figure 2: Clinical scores of C57BL/6 mice with CIA.
Figure 3: Analysis of purity of type II collagen by SDS-PAGE.
Figure 4: Incidence of arthritis in C57BL/6 mice after immunization with chicken type II collagen.
Figure 5: Proliferation and IFN-γ/IL-17 production by T cells from C57BL/6 mice with CIA.

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Change history

  • 07 August 2008

    The version of this article initially published omitted two key references that describe the induction of arthritis in C57BL/6 mice. The protocol described in both papers differs slightly from the protocol described here in that it involves two immunizations with type II collagen in complete Freund's adjuvant. On p. 1, right-hand column, the sentence that begins "However, we have recently shown that CIA can be induced reproducibly in C57BL/6 mice" should have read "However, we and others have recently shown that CIA can be induced reproducibly in C57BL/6 mice4,18,19". The omitted references were: 18. Campbell, I.K. et al. Protection from collagen-induced arthritis in granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor-deficient mice. J Immunol. 161, 3639-3644 (1998). 19. Campbell, I.K., Hamilton, J.A. & Wicks I.P. Collagen-induced arthritis in C57BL/6 (H-2b) mice: new insights into an important disease model of rheumatoid arthritis. Eur. J. Immunol. 30, 1568-1575 (2000). The references formerly numbered 18 and 19 have been renumbered 20 and 21. The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology Division, Imperial College London, 1 Aspenlea Road, London, W6 8LH, UK

    Julia J Inglis, Egle Šimelyte, Fiona E McCann, Gabriel Criado & Richard O Williams

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  1. Julia J Inglis
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Correspondence to Richard O Williams.

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Inglis, J., Šimelyte, E., McCann, F. et al. Protocol for the induction of arthritis in C57BL/6 mice. Nat Protoc 3, 612–618 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2008.19

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