Fig. 1.

FTY ameliorates chronic progressive EAE in NOD mice. EAE was induced in NOD/ShiLtJ mice, which were treated with daily i.p. injections of FTY720 or vehicle in the secondary progressive phase of the disease starting from day 40 after disease induction. (A) Clinical scores (Left) and linear regression analysis (Right) of mice under treatment with FTY720 or vehicle (n = 10 mice per group; two-way ANOVA). (B) Kaplan–Meier survival analysis of mice in the experiment described in A by two-way ANOVA. (C) Histologic examination of transversal lumbar spinal cord sections isolated from FTY720- or vehicle-treated mice at day 120. (Left) representative sections stained for Luxol fast blue (LFB) for demyelination or Bielschowsky’s Silver stain (silver) for axonal loss. Representative of three sections of three mice. (Right) Quantification of demyelination and axonal loss in FTY720- or vehicle-treated mice (Student’s t test). (D) Proliferation assay from splenocytes isolated on day 120 of the experiment (n = 5; two-way ANOVA). Throughout, data are mean ± SEM and representative of two independent experiments (*P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01; ns, not significant).