Abstract: Type Ⅱ collagen was prepared from the articular carlilage of human fresh dead fetus.This collagen had been comfirmed by amino acid analysis and SDS-PAGE.An improved enzymelinked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)for the detection of anticollagen antibodies in human serum had been developed.With the use of this method,antibodies against native human type Ⅱcollagen were detected in 90.7% of sera from 54 patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA).The antibodies were all negative in sera from 99 patients with non-RA diseases and 100 normal human. Thus anti-type Ⅱcollagen antibody assay may have specific diagnostic significance for RApatients.

Key words: anti-type Ⅱ collagen antibody, diagnostic, rhumatoid arthritis