INVIVO DEMYELINATION INDUCED BY INTRANEURAL INJECTION OF ANTI-GALACTOCEREBROSIDE SERUM - MORPHOLOGIC STUDY

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  • 1 January 1979
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 95  (1) , 99-116
Abstract
Intraneural injection of rabbit anti-galactocerebroside (anti-GC) serum produced focal demyelinative lesions in rat sciatic nerves. Recipient rats developed a sensory motor deficit of the toes and feet on the side injected with anti-GC serum. Schwann cell abnormalities in recipient nerves were apparent by 20 min, followed by myelin splitting and vesiculation over the next 8 h. Macrophages first appeared in moderate numbers by 15 h and degraded myelin was completely phagocytized by 5 days. An acute inflammatory reaction consisting of endoneurial edema, polymorphonuclear cell infiltration and fibrin extravasation also was prominent. In vivo demyelinative activity of rabbit anti-GC serums was removed by pre-incubation with GC or central or peripheral nervous system myelin and was also lost when the serums were heated at 56.degree. C for 30 min and injected into nerves of rats previously injected with cobra venom factor. Anti-GC antibodies were present in the serum of rabbits with experimental allergic neuritis (WN-EAN) and encephalomyelitis (WM-EAE) produced, respectively, by immunization with whole peripheral nerve or brain white matter and may play a role in the pathogenesis of demyelination in GC-induced EAN, WN-EAN or WM-EAE.