【Abstract】 Objective: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have serious impact on the quality of patients life. However, the mechanism underlying the RA is unclear. The establishment of effective animal model for RA will benefit the researches on RA and also will provide evidence for clinical treatments of RA. Methods: The present study was performed on the Dark-Agouti (DA) rats. The RA model was induced by intracutaneous injection of pristane (300μL) into the root of the tail. Results: Arthritic manifestations occurred in all the DA rats 7-14 days after injection of pristane, including joint swelling in metacarpophalangeal joints, interphalangeal joint and ankle joint, increase in paw volume, trouble walking, decline in range of motion, decrease in mechanical withdrawal threshold, and so on. All these manifestations reached the peak at 21-28 days. Conclusion: The RA model induced by pristane in DA rats have some characteristics such as high incidence, simple operation, similar to the patients with RA. Thus, it could be conclude that pristane induced arthritis (PIA) model in DA rats is a better model for RA.