ADOPTIVELY TRANSFERRED EAE IN GAMMA-DELTA T-CELL-KNOCKOUT MICE

Recently there has been evidence suggesting that gamma delta receptor- bearing T cells may play a role in both multiple sclerosis (MS) and ex perimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE). We have recently describe d approaches for the generation of encephalitogenic T-cell populations from EAE-resistant strains of mice. Using encephalitogenic T-cell lin es and clones generated from wild-type C57BL/6 mice we have studied ad optively transferred EAE in C57BL/6-TCR delta-knockout mice. We now re port that the adoptive transfer of encephalitogenic T cells into TCR d elta T-knockout mice leads to clinical EAE that is not significantly d ifferent in severity or time course than that seen after transfer into wild-type C57BL/6 mice. We conclude that gamma delta T cells do not p lay an integral role in the mediation or regulation of the effector-ph ase mechanisms in EAE. (C) 1998 Academic Press Limited.