[Basic studies on chronic polyarthritis as a collagen-autoimmune disease].

Clinical and experimental data establishing a hypothesis about rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as a collagen auto-immune disease are reviewed, beginning with the demonstration of rheumatoid synovial collagenase, the demonstration of collagen antibodies in the serum and the synovial fluid of patients with RA, the demonstration of collagen inclusion bodies and collagen-anticollagen immune complexes in synovial fluid cells and the synovial fluid of patients with RA, and leading to the in vitro demonstration of the inflammatory effect of such complexes, and the induction of experimental arthritis by these complexes. Each section contains tabular summaries of various investigations. Finally, a relation between these observations and the conclusions deduced from them and the appearance of rheumatoid factors in RA and the pathogenic effect of rheumatoid factor - gammaglobulin aggregates is considered.