The phenotype of infiltrating immune cells in the central nervous system (CNS) of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mice
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system described by diffuse regions of inflammation and demyelination .The disease aetiology is currently unknown and its pathogenesis is not fully understood despite fundamental insights obtained via examinations of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of MS. It is commonly thought that myelin-specific autoreactive CD4+ T cells immunologically mediate MS. In current years, an important area of MS research has been the focus to identify the involvement of multiple immune cells and their specific roles in the initiation, development and recovery of MS disease. This project investigated the infiltration of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, macrophage and dendritic cells in the spinal cord tissues collected from the onset, peak and resolution stages of EAE mice using immunohistochemical staining. Our results demonstrate that during different stages of EAE, infiltration of almost each immune cell phenotype investigated was observed in the spinal cord, however with various degrees. CD4 cells presented in all the stages with a significant increase in peak, while macrophage highly presented in resolution compare to onset and peak stages. CD8 cells infiltrations were less pronounced during the three stages, surprisingly no infiltration detected for dendritic cells. Although our finding might be important to understand the contribution of these different immune cell phenotypes in EAE and MS, plenty of questions required to be answered concerning the various subdivisions within each cell population and their precise role in individual stage of the disease.
