The destruction evaluation in different foot joints: new ideas in collagen-induced arthritis rat model

Collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) has been widely used as the animal model of rheumatoid arthritis since 1977, while till now, no paper has depicted the destruction characteristics in different foot joints. In this study, we observed the differences among the foot joint destruction process of CIA to elucidate further the pathological process of this model. CIA was induced in male Wistar rat immunized with bovine type II collagen and Freund’s incomplete adjuvant. Radiological studies were performed 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 months after the second immunization to follow the development of disease. At last, all the animals were killed and histological research was performed. In the histological observation, three main types of joint destructions such as subchondral side erosion, external joint erosion and the cartilaginous fusion of articular cartilage were identified. All these destruction forms exist in one joint or several different joints. Furthermore, we found that tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) stain-positive cells participated in the destruction of articular cartilage. These new findings showed that in the disease process of the CIA model, different foot joints show different destruction characteristics and cartilaginous fusion of foot joints is another typical pathological characteristic.