| Abstract: | The cytotoxic activity of rabbit antisera against brain and spinal cord antigens for mouse and guinea pig lymphocytes was investigated. None of the sera tested had any cytotoxic action on bone marrow lymphocytes, whereas sera against mouse brain and spinal cord, guinea pig brain, and myelin isolated from it were most toxic for lymphocytes of other lymphoid organs; the maximal toxic effect was found against thymocytes, it was less marked against lymph gland lymphocytes, and still less against spleen cells. The cytotoxicity of antisera against bovine spinal cord, and the myelin or basic protein isolated from it, was least of all and was the same against all the cells mentioned above; antiserum against encephalitogenic polypeptide 2c had virtually no cytotoxic activity. In its encephalitogenic properties fraction 2c considerably surpassed myelin and basic protein prepared from bovine spinal cord. Experiments with absorption of brain antiserum suggested that a cross-reacting antigen is present in the cerebral cortex. Subcutaneous injection of a relatively large dose of thymocytes (224×106) in Freund's complete adjuvant did not lead to the development of allergic encephalomyelitis in guinea pigs.Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Leningrad. (Presented by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR V. I. Ioffe.) Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 82, No. 8, pp. 968–970, August, 1976. |
