title: The fate of neonatally injected effector cells of allergic encephalomyelitis.
abstract: Lymphocytes from rats sensitized with basic protein (BP) plus complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA), which produce allergic encephalomyelitis when transferred to adult recipients, fail to induce disease when transferred to 3- to 5-day-old neonatal rats. The transferred cells do, however persist in the recipients and can be revealed by actively challenging with BP-CFA later in adult life. Challenge leads to a significantly earlier onset of disease than is seen in control animals. We report here that the cells are long lived and persist in the recipients for at least 9 months. The cells can be demonstrated in the spleen and lymph nodes of recipient animals and can be activated by homologous and cross-reacting encephalitogenic antigenic preparations but not by antigen in nonencephalitogenic forms. These neonatal recipients, which carry autoimmune effector cells asymptomatically for prolonged periods, may provide a useful model for advancing our understanding of immunoregulatory events in this experimental demyelinating disease as well as the human demyelinating disease multiple sclerosis.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000276:immunology*; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000276:immunology; D002470:Cell Survival; D004681:Encephalomyelitis, Autoimmune, Experimental / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D007116:Immunization, Passive; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000276:immunology; D017710:Lymphocyte Transfusion; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D013154:Spleen / Q000276:immunology; D013156:Splenectomy