HUMAN T-LYMPHOCYTES DISTINGUISH BOVINE FROM HUMAN P-2 PERIPHERAL MYELIN PROTEIN - IMPLICATIONS FOR IMMUNOLOGICAL STUDIES ON INFLAMMATORY DEMYELINATING NEUROPATHIES

In patients with inflammatory demyelinating neuropathy, which is possi bly mediated by autoreactive, myelin-specific T lymphocytes, most stud ies focusing on immune responses to the major neuritogenic myelin prot ein P-2 have been performed with bovine P-2. However, the primary stru cture of bovine P-2 differs from the human protein by nine amino acid residues that may profoundly influence the antigen recognition by T ly mphocytes. We purified bovine and human P-2 from peripheral nervous ti ssue and established a total of 19 T cell lines (TCL) reactive with bo vine P-2 from blood of two patients with acute Guillain-Barre syndrome (n = 5 TCL) and from six healthy individuals. Only four of these TCL, all raised from the blood of the GBS patients, transiently cross-reco gnized human P-2 protein. Our results suggest that the use of human au toantigen may be crucial for the characterization of T cellular immune responses against P-2 protein both in patients with inflammatory demy elinating neuropathy and in healthy controls.