Immunocomplexes in rat and rabbit spinal cord after injury.
The possibility that, following a major lesion of the central nervous system, a humoral immune response could be evoked with formation of immune complexes "in situ" was investigated. For this purpose, an immunohistochemical study on rabbit and rat spinal cord at different times after surgical transection was carried out. The peroxidase-antiperoxidase method showed IgG decoration of the myelin sheaths starting a short time after surgery. The sera of intact and injured animals were then tested both by immunohistochemical methods on intact spinal cord sections and by immunoelectrophoresis on a protein extract of homologous spinal cord. The results showed in the rabbit the absence of antibodies to neural antigens before surgical injury and its appearance within a few days after surgery. On the other hand, in the rat, even before the injury, we found antibodies to neural tissue which decreased in the first few hours after injury, and returned to control values during successive days. The same experiments were conducted after a peripheral nerve lesion (sciatic nerve crush), but no immune response could be detected. The possible role of this immune response in the failure of axonal regeneration in mammalian spinal cord is briefly discussed.
D000818:Animals; D000936:Antigen-Antibody Complex / Q000032:analysis*; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000032:analysis*; D007158:Immunologic Techniques; D059348:Peripheral Nerve Injuries; D010525:Peripheral Nerves / Q000276:immunology; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000293:injuries; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000276:immunology*
D000936:Antigen-Antibody Complex; D007074:Immunoglobulin G