Tracking of proinflammatory collagen-specific T cells in early and late collagen-induced arthritis in humanized mice
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with certain HLA-DR4 subtypes. The target autoantigen(s) is unknown, but type II collagen (CII) is a candidate, with a single immunodominant DR4-restricted 261-273 T cell epitope (CII(261273)). In the present study, we have prepared HLA-DR4:CII(261-273) tetramers and analyzed peripheral blood, lymph node, and synovial fluid cells fr
