In vitro evidence that immunuaffinity-purified MOG contains immunogenic quantities of contaminating mouse IgG; techniques for producing Ig-free MOG

Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) has attracted considerable attent ion due to its possible role in multiple sclerosis (MS). Previous studies h ave shown that MOG-reactive T cells are more commonly detected in MS patien ts than controls. In this report, we studied human MOG-reactive T cell clon es generated from healthy individuals as well as MS patients. Our results i ndicate that immunoaffinity-purified MOG, which was routinely used in prior studies. is contaminated by anti-MOG antibody (mouse IgG), despite the ina bility to detect IgG by Western blotting. Here, we used continuous SDS-PAGE . which enabled us to isolate highly purified MOG devoid of contaminating m ouse IgG. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.