Figure 1.

GAD65-reactive CD4⁺ T cells cause a lethal encephalomyelitis-like disease. A, Incidence of disease in NOD.scid mice transplanted with bone marrow transduced with retrovirus encoding the TCR listed. B, Disease severity as determined by disease score. An EAE-based scoring system was used to measure disease severity: 0 - normal; 1 – lethargic, ruffled fur, weight loss of at least 10%, flaccid tail; 2 – 1 plus abnormal righting reflex; 3 – impaired balance and/or ataxia, involuntary movements, weakness or stiffness of limbs, usually asymmetric; 4 – paralysis and/or persistent tremors, possible incontinence; 5 – moribund or death (32). The number of mice followed for incidence is as follows: PA21.14H4 (9), 4B5 (17), PA19.9G11 (8), and PA17.9G7 (11) while 5 mice from each group were monitored for disease score as outlined in the materials and methods section. C, Pituitary (upper panel) and thalamus (lower panel) sections of mice with a Grade 3 score (Grade 0 for PA21.14H4) were stained with either anti-mouse CD4 (red), anti-GAD65 (green) and DAPI (blue), or anti-Iba-1 (green) and DAPI (blue). The diagrams on the right side depict the anterior (Ant), intermedia (Int) and posterior (Post) regions of the pituitary gland (upper panel) and a sagittal section of a brain and the location of the thalamus (lower panel). Data is representative of 6 experiments with 8–17 mice per TCR group.