The fate of neonatally injected effector cells of allergic encephalomyelitis.
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.
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