Proteoglycan-induced arthritis (PGIA) is a unique systemic autoimmune disease model of spondyloarthritis (SpA) induced by intraperitoneal immunization of either BALB/c or certain C3H colonies with cartilage proteoglycan. This model is currently the only systemic autoimmune mice model with axial skeleton manifestation, which has become a focus of study in SpA modeling. Here in this review we summarize the methods of animal model building, phenotype identification, immunological characteristics and pathways involved in bone remodeling of PGIA based on previous studies, hoping to provide references for study on SpA animal model.