Fig. 5.

Adoptive transfer of zymosan-modulated neutrophils ameliorates EAE, enhances neuronal survival, and decreases encephalitogenic T cell accumulation. Clinical and immunological outcomes were assessed in C57BL/6 mice subjected to Th17-mediated adoptive transfer EAE. Mice received intravenous (i.v.) injections of PBS (black circles), 5 × 10⁶ bone marrow–derived neutrophils (BMN; green triangles), or 5 × 10⁶ zymosan-modulated neutrophils (ZMN; blue squares) on days 4 and 6 post-transfer (p.t.) of encephalitogenic CD4⁺ T cells. A Clinical disease measures including mean daily clinical scores over time (left), area under the clinical score curve (AUC) for individual mice (middle), and the percentage of mice exhibiting neurological deficits over time (right). Data are from one experiment (n = 4–7 mice per group), representative of three independent experiments. B Left: Representative retinal whole mounts stained for retinal ganglion cells (RGCs; using anti-RBPMS antibodies) from EAE mice that received either PBS, BMN, or ZMN at day 6 p.t. Scale bars represent 40 μm. Right: Quantification of average RGC density (cells per mm²). Data represent 6–8 retinas per group. C Representative flow cytometry histograms (left), absolute numbers of CD45.1⁺ donor-derived CD4⁺ T cells (middle), and frequencies (right) of CD45.1⁺ donor-derived cells among total CD4⁺ T cells (gated on viable CD45⁺CD11b⁻CD4⁺ cells) isolated from the spinal cord (top) and meninges (bottom) at day 20 p.t. from EAE mice treated with PBS, BMN, or ZMN. Data represent 7–10 mice per group, pooled from two independent experiments. Statistical significance was determined using a two-tailed Student’s t test unless otherwise indicated. Incidence curves in panel A were compared using a log-rank (Mantel–Cox) test. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. p < 0.05; *p < 0.01; **p < 0.001; ***p < 0.0001