Figure 3

Immunisation with hGPI _325–339 induces severe polyarthritis. DBA/1 mice were immunised with 25 μg of hGPI_325–339, hGPI_539–558 or hGPI_544–558, or 10 μg each of hGPI_325–339 plus hGPI_544–558, and 200 ng of pertussis toxin was injected intraperitoneally on days 0 and 2 after immunisation. (a) The mean arthritis score (± standard error of the mean (SEM)) of five mice in one representative experiment of two independent experiments. (b) Severe swelling of the wrist (upper panels) and ankle joints (middle panels) in mice immunised with 25 μg of hGPI_325–339 compared with naïve mice (arrowheads). Histological analysis of haematoxylin & eosin-stained sections of ankle joints taken from naïve mice and mice on day 14 after hGPI_325–339 immunization (lower panels) showed severe synovitis with massive infiltration of cells and hyperplasia of synovial tissue (arrowheads).