title: Splenectomy and adoptive cell transfer reveal a prominent role for splenic memory lymphocytes in the development of chronic relapsing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.
abstract: We previously reported that acute experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), induced by active immunization of SJL mice, could be converted into chronic relapsing EAE (CR-EAE) by a pretreatment with neuroantigen and killed mycobacteria 2 months earlier. This finding indicates that immune memory, established by the pretreatment, influences the subsequent EAE induction. The present study shows that splenectomy and lymphadenectomy, applied 1 week before the subsequent active immunization of the pretreated mice, efficiently abort the chronic nature of CR-EAE. Furthermore, we have found that adoptive transfer of lymphocytes from the spleen (but not of those from the local draining lymph nodes) of the pretreated mice to naive syngeneic recipients 1 week before the acute EAE-induction immunization results in the development of CR-EAE. On the other hand, the transfer of lymphocytes from the local draining lymph nodes aggravates the acute disease. These data support a critical role for immune memory of the previous suboptimal challenge in the development of chronic relapsing demyelinating disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Pathology, Institute of Medical Biology, University of Tromso, Tromso, Norway.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kubera
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zelek-Molik
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nalepa
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hukkanen
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Lindsberg
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meri
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Seljelid
mesh_terms: D019264:Adoptive Transfer; D000818:Animals; D004681:Encephalomyelitis, Autoimmune, Experimental / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D007114:Immunization; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D051379:Mice; D013154:Spleen / Q000502:physiology*; D013156:Splenectomy; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000502:physiology*