Correlation of immunological studies and disease progression in chronic progressive multiple sclerosis |
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Authors: | J L Trotter D B Clifford J E McInnis R C Griffeth K A Bruns M S Perlmutter C B Anderson K G Collins G Banks B C Hicks |
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Affiliation: | Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63110. |
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Abstract: | Thirty untreated patients with clinically definite chronic progressive multiple sclerosis were matched with 10 patients with clinically stable definite multiple sclerosis and 16 patients with other neurological diseases. A group of 12 normal control (NC) volunteers was matched to these groups. All patients with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis and normal control subjects were analyzed for the concanavalin A suppressor assay, mitogen stimulation, and phenotyping of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. In addition, serum was analyzed for interleukin-2 levels. Results of mitogen stimulation studies did not distinguish the groups. Concanavalin A-induced suppression was significantly decreased in the patients with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis (p less than 0.01). Phenotyping of fresh cells showed an elevated CD4: CD8 ratio in the patients with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis. Neither phenotyping nor concanavalin A-induced suppression correlated with or predicted the degree of disability, but the serum levels of interleukin-2 correlated inversely with disability (p less than 0.01) and directly with a poor prognosis after 18 months of observation (p less than 0.05). Serum levels of interleukin-2 decreased as the disease progressed. |
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