[Autoimmunity to collagen, experimental arthritis and rheumatic disease].

Auto-immunity to type II collagen is now recognised as a good experimental model of arthritis. The possibility of a post-immunization treatment with collagen to suppress or abrogate the arthritic response is particularly interesting in the therapeutical trends suggested by such a possibility. In human pathology, if the pathogenic role of anti-native collagen type II auto-antibodies is well demonstrated in relapsing polychondritis, in the contrary, this hypothesis does not seem relevant to rheumatoid arthritis. In this disease, the role of the auto-immunity to native collagen appears secondary.