Susceptibility of cartilage to damage by immunological inflammation.

Injection of ovalbumin into subcutaneous air pouches prepared on the backs of rats previously sensitised to the antigen resulted in the induction of a small and transient accumulation of inflammatory fluid with a predominantly polymorph cell infiltrate. Challenge of pouches of appropriately sensitised rats with Bordetella pertussis vaccine, on the other hand, resulted in a larger and more prolonged accumulation of fluid and cells with a predominantly mononuclear presence. When intact homologous femoral head cartilage was implanted in these inflamed pouches proteoglycan loss was found to be not different from similar implants in non-inflamed pouches. Coating the cartilage with human heat-aggregated immunoglobulin G prior to implantation in air pouches was also found to be without effect on subsequent proteoglycan loss.