SIMILAR PATTERN OF MCP-1 EXPRESSION IN SPINAL-CORDS AND EYES OF LEWISRATS WITH EXPERIMENTAL AUTOIMMUNE ENCEPHALOMYELITIS ASSOCIATED ANTERIOR UVEITIS

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is a member of the CC chemo kine family responsible for the recruitment of T cells that have been found during inflammation of the spinal cord in experimental autoimmun e encephalomyelitis (EAE) in Lewis rats immunized with myelin basic pr otein (MBP), Lewis rats injected with MBP also developed anterior uvei tis (AU), which coincided with the onset of EAE, In the present studie s, we examined the expression and distribution of MCP-1 in the eye and spinal cord during disease and compared it to the expression of Th1 c ell type cytokines, Initially, MCP-1 expression was detected at the pr eclinical phase in the iris/ciliary body and lumbar spinal cord and in creased during the course of EAE/AU, Mononuclear infiltrating cells an d endothelial cells and astrocytes of the CNS could be identified as a source of MCP-1 by in situ hybridization, Kinetics of expression of T h1 characteristic cytokines such as IL-2 and IFN gamma was in agreemen t with the expression of MCP-1 chemokine, Moreover, induction of the g ene expression of MCP-1 seemed to occur earlier than that of MIP-2, an d it correlated with increasing disease severity. MCP-1 seems to contr ibute to the initial recruitment of inflammatory cells into both the t issues of the eye and CNS over the course of disease.