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. 1990 Sep;86(3):981–985. doi: 10.1172/JCI114800

Autoreactive T lymphocytes in multiple sclerosis determined by antigen-induced secretion of interferon-gamma.

T Olsson 1, W W Zhi 1, B Höjeberg 1, V Kostulas 1, Y P Jiang 1, G Anderson 1, H P Ekre 1, H Link 1
PMCID: PMC296818  PMID: 1697609

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease with unknown cause characterized by inflammation and demyelination in the central nervous system. Although an autoimmune pathogenesis has been suggested, there are no conclusive data on the number of T cells autoreactive with myelin antigens in MS compared to controls. We showed that T lymphocytes secreting interferon-gamma in response to possible target autoantigens are severalfold more common among PBL mononuclear cells in patients with MS than in patients with aseptic meningitis and tension headache. On average T cells reactive with myelin basic protein (MBP), two different MBP peptides, or with proteolipid protein amounted to 2.7-5.2/10(5) PBL from MS patients. MBP-reactive T cells were still more frequent among mononuclear cells isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF; 185/10(5) CSF cells). We concluded that T cells reactive with myelin autoantigens are strongly increased in MS. This approach to detect them could allow definition of immunodominant T cell epitopes in individual MS patients, and thereby enable further development towards specific immunotherapy.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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