x7 x8 x9 in the sequence x2 x6 and x7 are any amino acid x1 is any amino acid except k h r e d x3 is s or t x4 is one of f l i v a g c p x5 is one of a g c p s n t v x8 is one of v l i m and x9 is e or d the peptide is also a part of a mammalian cartilage joint or arthritis related protein such as collagen or a cartilage protein and is between 9 20 amino acids in length furthermore the peptide is recognised by freshly isolated t cells from rats in which adjuvant arthritis is induced and or is recognised in vitro by t cell clone a2 b application_number US 64737200 A description immunisation of inbred lewis rats with heat killed mycobacterium tuberculosis mt suspended in mineral oil results in an arthritis like disease characterised by inflammation of the synovium formation of pannus destruction of cartilage and erosion of bone pearson and wood arth rheum 2 440 1959 this is also known as the adjuvant arthritis aa model first described by pearson proc soc exp biol med 91 95 1956 the a2b t cell clone holoshitz et al science 219 56 1983 has been isolated from lewis rats immunised with heat killed mt and can induce arthritis when injected into naive lewis rats based on this observation van eden et al proc natl acad sci u s a 82 5117 1985 described that the a2b t cell clone generated with heat killed mt as the immunising antigen recognises a yet unidentified rat cartilage associated component later the specific antigen of the.