Guillain-Barre syndrome serum and anti-Campylobacter antibody do not exacerbate experimental autoimmune neuritis

To investigate whether antibodies are pathogenic in Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), we injected pre-treatment serum from 11 GBS patients intraperitonea lly into rats in which the blood-nerve barrier had been opened by induction of mild adoptive transfer experimental autoimmune neuritis. There was no s ignificant clinical, neurophysiological or pathological difference between rats receiving GBS serum compared with those receiving control serum, excep t that GBS serum caused minor excess weight loss. Murine monoclonal antibod y to Campylobacter jejuni and gangliosides also did not exacerbate disease. This experiment failed to show antibody-mediated disease exacerbation and so does not support an antibody-mediated mechanism in GBS. (C) 2001 Elsevie r Science B.V. All rights reserved.