Experimental Arthritis in Rabbits Produced With Streptococci and Other Organisms

The Experimental Production of Arthritis: A Review

“…In discursive and poorly illustrated papers, Svartz (1938) reported the production of polyarthritis by the repetitive inoculation of an emulsion of the polymorphic diplococci isolated from patients with polyarthritis; she concluded that the changes resembled those of human rheumatism. Cecil, Angevine, and Rothbard (1939) found lesions in rabbits after the repeated intravenous injection of Streptococcus viridans, staphylococci, pneumococci, and Salmonella paratyphi A, histologically similar to the non-specific changes they associated with rheumatoid arthritis. Rigdon (1942) contrasted the response of actively and passively immunized rabbits to the intravenous inoculation of a broth culture of Staphylococcus aureus, and Friedlander (1951) and Friedlander, Habermann, and Parr (1951b) used the albino rat and mouse in a survey of the effects of haemolytic streptococci.…”

“…Dawson (1937) reviewed the evidence implicating streptococci in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis; he emphasized that no final conclusion could be reached. The work of Cecil, Angevine, and Rothbard (1939), in which haemolytic streptococci were used to cause arthritis in rabbits, led these authors to conclude that the lesions found, although resembling those of rheumatoid arthritis, were not specific. Their work was continued by Rothbard (1940) using the albino rat, and by Angevine, Cecil, and Rothbard (1942) using the rabbit.…”

Contemporary Research on the Pathology of Rheumatic Disease reviewed in the Light of 100 years of Cellular Pathology

“…To what extent is it permissible to draw conclusions about rheumatoid arthritis in man from the comparative pathology of limited lesions in, say, the synovial tissues? All kinds of agents have been employed in causing granulomatous arthritis in small animals, for example, streptococci (Cecil, Angevine, and Rothbard, 1939), pleuropneumonia organisms (Findlay, 1946), turpentine (Jordan, 1938), formalin (Selye, 1949), and antigenic serum (Klinge, 1933), without conclusive evidence that a parallel could be established with rheumatoid arthritis of man. One agent with which I have been especially concerned is the micro-organism Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae.…”

Studies on the Bactericidal Properties of the Synovial Fluid 1

“…Neither author offered experimental proof for these statements. In rabbits with experimental streptococcal arthritis, synovial fluid obtained more than 3 to 6 weeks after the infection is usually sterile (13).…”