THE GENERATION OF ENCEPHALITOGENIC T-CELL LINES FROM EXPERIMENTAL ALLERGIC ENCEPHALOMYELITIS-RESISTANT STRAINS OF MICE

While only a few strains of mice are susceptible to the primary induct ion or passive transfer of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EA E), the basis of EAE resistance remains unclear, In the present studie s, we have defined two approaches that allow for the generation of enc ephalitogenic, myelin basic protein-reactive, T cell lines from EAE-re sistant strains of mice. The first approach, based on the putative rel evance of apoptosis to autoimmune disease, involves repeat antigenic s timulation of recently initiated T cell lines, The second approach inv olves the initiation of lymph node cultures in the absence of exogenou s splenocytes as antigenic-presenting cells and the use of a higher an tigen concentration. Both approaches lead to the generation of encepha litogenic T cell lines from EAE-resistant mouse strains and will be us eful for identifying factors relevant to the pathogenesis of EAE.