Figure 3.

Curdlan treatment suppressed chronic Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV)-induced demyelinating disease (TMEV-IDD). (A) We evaluated the clinical signs by impaired righting reflex scores in the control mice (closed boxes) and curdlan-treated mice (open circles) following TMEV infection. One day prior to TMEV infection, mice were injected with curdlan (TMEV + curdlan); the control mice had no treatment (TMEV alone). The curdlan treatment group had a delayed disease onset and less severe clinical signs during the chronic phase, 1 month post infection (p.i.), but not during the acute phase, 1 week, p.i. Results are representative of three independent experiments (four mice per group per experiment). *P < 0.05, Mann-Whitney U test. (B) Numbers of viral antigen-positive cells of the spinal cord tissue sections from the control mice (black bar) and curdlan-treated mice (white bar) 5 weeks after TMEV infection. Values are the mean + SEM of four mice per group. (C) Immunohistochemistry against viral antigens of the spinal cord tissue sections from the control mice and curdlan-treated mice 5 weeks after TMEV infection. Arrows indicate viral antigen-positive cells (scale bar = 200 μm). Tissue sections were representative of four mice per group.