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Abstract
To investigate whether immunological responses to type II collagen (CII) play an important role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the presence of anti-CII antibodies was examined by enzyme immunoassay in 130 Japanese patients with RA, 10 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, and 30 healthy subjects. In addition, the HLA-DRB1 genes of 40 RA patients were determined, and their association with positive findings of anti-CII antibodies was examined. A significantly high frequency of positive findings of anti-CII antibodies was detected in sera from RA patients (19%, P < 0.05) in comparison with that in sera from healthy subjects (3%). High frequencies of DRB1 *0405 and 0101 alleles were observed in the 40 RA patients examined (40.0% and 30.0%, respectively). Patients with DRB1 *0101 had a significantly higher rate of positive findings of anti-CII antibodies than those without DRB1 *0101 (66.7% and 28.6%, respectively, P < 0.05). No such association was observed for DRB1 *0405. From these findings, we suggest that immunological responses to CII may play an important role in the development of arthritis in some RA patients.