Fig. 5

Assessment of the biological efficacy of the plasmid DNA vaccine on collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) rats. a The incidence of arthritis in the experimental rats during the experimental period. b The arthritis score of the experimental rats during the experimental period. The plasmid DNA vaccine was administered on day 14 before the onset of arthritis, and arthritis progression was monitored over 28 days using a macroscopic scoring system. The data represent the average gross clinical scores for rats treated with 300 μg/kg of vaccine, normal saline (NS), and methotrexate (MTX) (n = 10 for each group). Error bars have been omitted for clarity. These data are representative of three independent experiments, which yielded similar results