Different types of antigen-presenting cells affect the induction of experimental autoimmune arthritis.

We obtained a type II collagen-specific murine T cell line containing at least two T cell clones, one reacting with only native collagen II and the other with both denatured and native molecules. Only the former could induce arthritis. The arthritogenic T cell clone(s) was preferentially stimulated to grow when epidermal cells were used as antigen-presenting cells. Conversely, the non-arthritogenic T cell clone(s) was mainly stimulated when spleen cells were used. Thus, it is speculated that different types of antigen-presenting cells preferentially present different epitopes on the same antigen, affecting the resulting in vivo immune phenomena.