Fig. 1.

Comparison of (a) onset, incidence and (b) severity of arthritis of G1 domain of cartilage proteoglycan (PG)-induced arthritis (GIA) in T cell receptor transgenic (TCR-TgA), TCR-TgB and wild-type (WT) BALB/c mice (n = 18 mice in each group) and (c) antibody levels measured at the end of experiment (on day 70). WT and 5/4E8 epitope-specific TCR-TgA and TCR-TgB mice (all in BALB/c background) were immunized with rhG1 in dimethyldioctadecylammonium bromide (DDA) adjuvant three times. Mice were assessed for arthritis onset and severity three times a week from day 18. Vertical arrows indicate the second and third immunizations. All TCR-TgA mice were arthritic at the time of the third injection, and peripheral small joints (paws) were deformed and stiff by day 38–42. Significant differences (TCR-TgA versus TCR-TgB) are indicated (*P ≤ 0·05; **P ≤ 0·01; ***P ≤ 0·001).