Figure 1-6916.

Daily intraperitoneal administration of CNTF reduces EAE symptoms in mice. A: Mice were immunized with MOG(35-55) peptide and complete Freund’s adjuvant on day 0. From days 8 to 24 mice were either treated with 60 μg/kg/day CNTF (n = 7) (black circles), 180 μg/kg/day CNTF (n = 8) (white triangles), or saline (n = 8) (white squares). Treatment with 180 μg/kg/day significantly improved the clinical course during the time of treatment. B: Intraperitoneal injection of 1.2 mg/kg/day CNTF (n = 11) (black diamonds) led to a further improvement of the clinical symptoms compared to saline-treated mice (n = 5) (white squares). C: Intraperitoneal injection of 60 or 180 μg/kg/day CNTF modified the time course of weight loss in mice with EAE, but minimal body weight did not change significantly between CNTF- and saline-injected mice. D: Treatment with 1.2 mg/kg/day induced severe loss of body weight in some mice. These mice were sacrificed at day 23. Cessation of CNTF treatment at day 24 led to increase in body weight. E: Treatment with 1.2 mg/kg/day CNTF led to a significant improvement of the maximal clinical score during the treatment period compared to saline-injected mice (P = 0.02). F: Treatment with 180 μg/kg/day and 1.2 mg/kg/day significantly reduced the cumulative disease score during treatment period compared to saline-injected mice (180 μg/kg/day, P = 0.0112; 1.2 mg/kg/day, P = 0.0016). The graphs in E and F show the median scores. One sacrificed because of severe EAE and two sacrificed because of severe weight loss.