Experimental Yersinia-associated arthritis in the spontaneously hypertensive rat.

Sterile arthritis resembling human reactive arthritis was induced in spontaneously hypertensive SHR rats by intravenous injection of live Yersinia enterocolitica 0:8. Histologically the synovitis appears as proliferation of the lining cell layer, with inflammatory cells present in the subsynovium. The inflammatory cells are mostly lymphocytes. Infection with Yersinia enterocolitica 0:3 or Yersinia pseudotuberculosis did not induce arthritis. Susceptibility to Yersinia-associated arthritis is not determined by the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), since rats of the normotensive control strain (WKY) with the same MHC do not develop arthritis.