Adjuvant arthritis in T lymphocyte depleted rats

Markedly T lymphocyte depleted rats were prepared by thymectomy, irradiation, and repopulation by bone marrow hematopoietic and lymphoid cells. Such rats had persistent T lymphopenia of about 20% of normal. When T depleted and normal rats were injected with adjuvant, all animals developed arthritis but with slightly less severity in the T depleted animals. Such experiments, and other observations, suggest a complex immunological mechanism in the pathogenesis of adjuvant arthritis in the rat.