Correlation of IL‐16
+
cell accumulations with the pathology of EAN. (A,B) Time course of IL‐16+ cell accumulation in sciatic nerves (A) and dorsal/ventral roots (B) was positively correlated with that of the neurological scores in EAN rats. IL‐16+ cells were counted as described in Experimental Procedures. Correlation analysis was evaluated by checking Spearman's correlation coefficient (for nonparametric correlation) (GraphPad PrismTM 4.0 for Windows, GraphPad Software, San Diego, USA). (C) A significant negative correlation between numbers of IL16+ cells with numbers of myelinated axons in perivascular areas of sciatic nerves from days 10 and 17 EAN rats was observed. The counting of IL‐16+ cells and myelinated axons was described in Experimental Procedures. Representative microphotos of two observation fields are presented to show that high IL‐16 expression was related with low numbers of myelinated axons (E), and weak IL‐16 expression was associated with high numbers of myelinated axons (F) in perivascular areas. Abbreviations: IL‐16 = interleukin‐16; EAN = experimental autoimmune neuritis.