Lymphocyte blast transformation responses to mitogens and specific antigens in different clinical phases of multiple sclerosis: a follow-up study

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Abstract
28 MS patients were studied at least 5 times for lymphocyte blast transformation responses to several mitogens (PHA, Con, PWM) and specific antigens (PPD, herpes simplex, measles, mumps, rubella), the mean duration of the follow-up being 15.3 months. Comparison of responses during remissions, exacerbations and ACTH treatment revealed no straight-forward association between the strength of response and clnical disease activity. Mitogen responses did not differ among various disease phases, but the PPD response was significantly lower during exacerbations than during remissions and still lower during ACTH treatment (P < 0.05, Wilcoxon paired test). In responses to viral antigens, there was the same trend as in the PPD response. However, there were great individual differences in the behaviour of all antigen and mitogen induced lymphocyte responses. As a group, MS patients also showed more changes in their PHA mitogen responses during the follow-up than 8 control subjects followed similarly (P < 0.005, F-test). The variation coefficient of the PHA response was also correlated with the maximal difference in the Fog neurologic deficit scale during the follow-up time (r = 0.460, P < 0.05). However, patients with greatest clinical changes most often also received ACTH treatment, which may affect the results. The follow-up results of individual patients revealed that some had quite regular patterns of decreasing responses during disease relapses, whereas others had more irregular wide fluctuations of responses.