Autoimmune arthritis: Transgenic mouse models and methods

With rising incidence of autoimmune disease and increasing number of patients being treated with immunotherapies that have the potential for autoimmune side effects, it is critical that we evaluate autoimmunity in preclinical models. Rheumatic diseases constitute some of the most common autoimmune conditions and to this end, we describe here several common murine models of joint inflammation. The K/BxN T cell transgenic model is a rapidly developing, synchronous and highly penetrant model of autoimmune arthritis. Arthritis can be induced (1) spontaneously; (2) by serum transfer of autoantibodies; or (3) by adoptive transfer of KRN T cells into an appropriate recipient. A second common model of arthritis, the collagen-induced arthritis model, is also described. Both models are useful for testing autoimmune effects of various therapies, and the K/BxN model has the advantage of a C57BL/6 background, making it amenable to genetic studies. Together, these models may be helpful for testing the autoimmune effects of monoclonal antibodies, nanotherapies, and small molecules as well as genetic contributions to autoimmune disease.