I n an experimental model of arthritis, increased leukocyte adhesion is associated with the evolution of acute and chronic synovial inflammation. Whereas peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from control animals bind minimally to fibronectin matrices, PBMC from animals receiving arthropathic doses of bacterial cell walls demonstrate increased integrin mRNA expression and enhanced adhesion. To determine whether this augmented adhesion was causal in the development of synovial pathology, peptides synthesized from several fibronectin domains which inhibited leukocyte adhesion in vitro were administered to arthritic animals either as free peptides or coupled to a carrier molecule. Not only were peptides containing either the RGD or CS-1 cell-binding domains inhibitory to chronic synovial pathology (articular index = 10.5 +/- 0.3 for untreated animals compared to 1.25 +/- 0.25 for RGD and 2.5 +/- 0.7 for CS-1), but three peptides synthesized from the carboxy-terminal 33-kD heparin-binding domain of fibronectin were also found to significantly inhibit leukocyte recruitment and the evolution of arthritis. Based on these data, which are the first to explore the therapeutic potential of heparin-binding fibronectin peptides in chronic inflammation, it appears that antagonism of cellular adhesion and recruitment by fibronectin peptides may provide an important mechanism for modulating the multi-step adhesion process and attenuating aberrant inflammatory responses.