Joint inflammation induced by a mature macrophage cell line and cloned MT4+, Lyt-2- T cells in allogeneic mice.

Recently we reported the isolation of the mature macrophage cell line AP284. This line can efficiently present antigen to cloned helper T cells in vitro and in vivo. In this paper we show that AP284 can also present antigen to cloned helper T cells in an in vivo model system in which joint inflammation is induced. It appeared that injection of cloned helper T cells specific for methylated bovine serum albumin (mBSA) together with mBSA and AP284 into the joints of allogeneic mice induced a substantial joint inflammation. This system offers great prospects for studying the involvement of soluble mediators in the induction of joint inflammation as well as regulatory aspects of this inflammation.