THE ENCEPHALITOGENIC ACTIVITY AND MYELIN BASIC PROTEIN CONTENT OF ISOLATED OLIGODENDROGLIA

Abstract— Oligodendroglia isolated from frozen human brain induced EAE in the guinea pig when injected with Freund's complete adjuvant. An acid extract of the isolated cells was highly encephalitogenic. The disease was clinically and histologically similar to EAE induced with CNS white matter or myelin basic protein(MBP). The isolated cells were essentially myelin‐free but contained a large amount of myelin basic protein as determined by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. It was shown that the cells can absorb 125I‐MBP during isolation and the possibility that contamination from extra cellular MBP is responsible for the encephalitogenic activity is considered.