COMPARATIVE-ANALYSIS OF ANTIBODY AND CELL-MEDIATED AUTOIMMUNITY TO TRANSALDOLASE AND MYELIN BASIC-PROTEIN IN PATIENTS WITH MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS

Antibody and T cell-mediated immune responses to oligodendroglial auto antigens transaldolase (TAL) and myelin basic protein (MBP) were exami ned in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), Immunohistochemical stud ies of postmortem brain sections revealed decreased staining by MBP- a nd TAL-specific antibodies in MS plaques, indicating a concurrent loss of these antigens from demyelination sites, By Western blot high tite r antibodies to human recombinant TAL were found in 29/94 sera and 16/ 23 cerebrospinal fluid samples from MS patients, Antibodies to MBP wer e undetectable in sera or cerebrospinal fluid of these MS patients, Pr oliferative responses to human recombinant TAL (stimulation index [SI] = 2,47+/-0,3) were significantly increased in comparison to MBP in 25 patients with MS (SI = 1,37+/-0,1; P < 0.01), After a 7-d stimulation of PBL, utilization of any of 24 different T cell receptor V beta gen e segments in response to MBP was increased less than twofold in the t wo control donors and six MS patients investigated, In response to TAL -H, while skewing of individual V beta genes was also less than twofol d in healthy controls, usage of specific V beta gene segments was diff erentially increased ranging from 2.5 to 65.9-fold in patients with MS , The results suggest that TAL may be a more potent immunogen than MBP in MS.