Chronic progressive polyarthritis and other symptoms of collagen vascular disease induced by graft-vs-host reaction

The induction of a GVHR in (BALB/c X A)F1 mice by i.v. injection of 80 to 120 X 10(6) BALB/c spleen cells leads to the development of chronic progressive polyarthritis, which shares several of the articular and extra-articular manifestations of human rheumatoid arthritis. The development of these lesions was found to be mediated by donor T cells and to require the presence of histoincompatibility between donor and host. The arthritis, which was mainly confined to the interphalangeal joints of the forefeet and hindfeet, was histologically characterized by periarticular and synovial lymphoid infiltrations, as well as synovial proliferation and pannus formation. Prominent juxta-articular lesions included 1) perivascular infiltrates, 2) peritendinitis, 3) myositis, and 4) inflammatory nodules. In addition, the GVH F1 mice showed pathologic symptoms reminiscent of other collagen vascular diseases, including the following: 1) a Sjögren-like salivary gland lesion, 2) lesions resembling sclerosing cholangitis, 3) scleroderma-like skin lesion, and 4) immune-complex glomerulonephritis. In most of the GVH F1 mice, these pathologic changes were accompanied by lymphoid stimulation. The spectrum of symptoms induced has many similarities to that found in mixed connective tissue disease.