Objective. The cartilage proteins melanoma inhibitory activity (MIA) and human cartilage gp-39 (HC gp-39) are candidate autoantigens in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The present study was undertaken to investigate the endogenous HLA-DR4-restricted presentation of these self proteins, in order to seek in vivo evidence in support of their potential immunologic role. The mechanisms that cause and sustain rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remain poorly elucidated. The association of the disease with certain class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) haplotypes, however, strongly suggests that specific antigens are presented by antigen-presenting cells (APCs) to CD4ϩ T lymphocytes (1,2). Previous studies indicate that cartilage could be the source of some of these antigens in RA (3-7). In the present study we investigated the local presence and presentation of 2 cartilage-derived proteins that have distinct properties: human cartilage gp-39 (HC gp-39) and a protein called melanoma inhibitory activity (MIA).