Fig. 8.

(a) JM4 is protective against spinal cord demyelination and axonal injury in SJL/J relapsing–remitting EAE mice. Luxol fast blue stain for myelin (top panel) in sham-treated EAE mice shows pronounced demyelination and vacuolization in the ventral white matter of the spinal cord compared to JM4-treated animals. SMI-32-stained axons (lower panel) in JM4-treated mice show a large reduction in number of injured axons rimming the periphery of the ventral spinal cord (white matter) compared to sham-treated EAE control mice. (b) JM4 therapy attenuates blood–brain barrier breakdown. Spinal cord sections were stained for mouse IgG to determine if serum leakage occurred. In a normal mouse spinal cord section, no IgG is detected. In contrast, saline treated EAE mice showed increased immunoreactivity most notably seen in the white matter of the spinal cord. Treatment with JM4 profoundly reduced the amount of IgG immunoreactivity in EAE cord back to close to normal