Figure 1: In vivo efficacy of CII-BPIs and their respective antigenic peptides in suppressing collagen-induced arthritis in CIA mouse model. PBS and MTX-cIBR were used as negative and positive controls. DBA/1J mice were immunized intradermally at the tail base with CII/CFA on day 0 and followed by a booster dose at day 21 as described in Material and Methods section. Intravenous injections of peptides (100 nmol/ injection) were administered on days 19, 22, and 25. For the MTX-cIBR group, mice were injected with 5 mg/kg in 100 uL of MTX-cIBR for 10 days beginning at day 19. The changes in paw volume were measured daily. The results are expressed as the mean ± standard error (n=7– 9). A, Study I shows evaluation of CII-BPI-1, CII-1, and MTX-cIBR. B, Study II shows efficacies of CII-BPI-2, CII-BPI-3, CII-2, and CII-3. Statistical values conducted on days 40-44 for changes in paw volume compared with PBS were as follows: CII-BPI-1, p <0.01; CII-1, p <0.01; CII-BPI-2, p <0.0001; CII-BPI-3, p <0.05; and CII-2, p<0.001.