Table 1.
Direct comparison between Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus induced demyelinating disease (TMEV-IDD) and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) spinal cord (SC) lesions.
| Parameter | MS (Petrova et al. 2018) | TME | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Material | whole post mortem spinal cords | cervical, thoracic and lumbar spinal cord segments (42, 98, 147, 196 dpi); | |
| people with secondary progressive MS and control subjects | TMEV and mock infected SJL mice | ||
| Area measurement (Figure 2) | decreased CSA | thoracic > cervical | thoracic segment, 196 dpi |
| decreased aCST/rrts | cervical > thoracic | thoracic segment 98, 196 dpi; cervical segment 196 dpi | |
| GM reduction; | cervical > lumbar | - | |
| WM reduction | cervical > thoracic | thoracic segment, 196 dpi | |
| Inflammation (Figure 3) | CD68/Mac3 | no difference between lesions and non-lesional MS tissue | significant increase of microglia/ macrophages with rostro-caudal dissemination of inflammation in TMEV-infected animals |
| Axonal loss (Figure 4) | axonal density | significantly reduced in MS patients | significantly reduced at 98, 147 and 196 dpi in TMEV infected animals |
| Level | all levels equally affected | cervical (147, 196 dpi) and thoracic (98, 147 dpi) segments | |
| axonal size | no difference between large and small diameter axons | large fibers (98 dpi); small fibers (147, 196 dpi) | |
| Demyelination (Figure 3) | GM | more extensive (24%–48%) most severe within the thoracic segment | less extensive; thoracic segment, 98 dpi |
| WM | less extensive (11%–13%); no variation in cord levels | more extensive; cervical segment, 42 dpi; all three segments, 98, 147, 196 dpi |
MS = multiple sclerosis; TMEV = Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus; CSA = cross sectional area; aCST = area of corticospinal tract; rrts = rostral reticulospinal tract; GM = gray matter; WM = white matter.