Chronic arthritis of rabbits induced by mycoplasmas. I. Clinical microbiologic, and histologic features.

Mycoplasma arthritidis and Mycoplasma pulmonis induced chronic arthritis in rabbits on intraarticular injection, characterized by joint swelling and histologic evidence of chronic active inflammation persisting at least one year. Cartilage and bone destruction was a prominent late feature of M arthritidis but not M pulmonis disease. Despite the progressive nature of the disease and persistence of active inflammation for many months after inoculation, mycoplasmas and mycoplasma antigens were not found in joint tissues after 7 weeks.