In Vivo Treatment of Rats with Monoclonal Anti‐T‐Cell Antibodies

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Abstract
The effects of intraperitoneal injection of monoclonal anti-rat T-lymphocyte antibodies were evaluated immunohistochemically and functionally in normal rats and in rats with experimental allergic neuritis. In the normal animals a single injection of OX8 antibodies, reactive with suppressor/cytotoxic T cells, completely eliminated OX8-reactive cells from peripheral lymphoid organs and from circulation, whereas the ''pan'' T-cell-reactive W3/13 antibodies and the helper T-cell-reactive W3/25 antibodies only caused a partial elimination of their respective target cells. Injection of the W3/13 and W3/25 antibodies but not of OX8 antibodies led to a diminished responsiveness to allogenic stimulation in vitro for spleen cells obtained from the treated rats, whereas the OX8 injection caused a complete elimination of the in vitro cytotoxic response to allogeneic cells in the mixed lymphocyte reaction-activated spleen cells population. When Lewis rats were injected with peripheral nerve myelin and Freund''s adjuvent for the induction of EAN, treatment with W3/13 antibodies completely prevented the onset of disease, whereas treatment with the OX8 antibodies exaggerated the disease symptoms.