Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Zhang, Bing
• Harness, Jackie
• Somodevilla-Torres, Maria J
• Hillyard, Narelle C
• Mould, Arne W
• Alewood, Dianne
• Love, Stephen G
• Alewood, Paul F
• Greer, Judith M
• Cavanagh, Alice C
• McCombe, Pamela A
• Morton, Halle

Titel

Early pregnancy factor suppresses experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis induced in Lewis rats with myelin basic protein and in SJL/J mice with myelin proteolipid protein peptide 139-151

Ist Teil von

• Journal of the neurological sciences, 2000-12, Vol.182 (1), p.5-15

Ort / Verlag

Shannon: Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

2000

Quelle

Elsevier Journal Backfiles on ScienceDirect (DFG Nationallizenzen)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Early pregnancy factor (EPF) is a secreted protein with immunosuppressive and growth factor properties. During pregnancy, it appears in maternal serum within 6–24 h of fertilization, is present for at least the first two-thirds of pregnancy in all species studied and is essential for embryonic survival. It is a homologue of chaperonin 10, a heat shock protein, but, unlike other members of this family, EPF has an extracellular role. As it has the ability to modulate CD4+ T cell-dependent immune responses, its role in treatment of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) was investigated. EAE is a CD4+ T cell-mediated disease, the best available animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS). Two models of EAE were investigated, acute EAE induced in Lewis rats by inoculation with myelin basic protein (MBP-EAE) and chronic relapsing EAE induced in SJL/J mice by inoculation with myelin proteolipid protein peptide (residues 139-151) (PLP-EAE). EPF, delivered intraperitoneally or orally to rats or intraperitoneally to mice, suppressed clinical signs of disease. Mice with PLP-EAE were also treated with interferon-β, with and without EPF. Both EPF and IFN-β suppressed clinical signs of EAE and, when administered together, gave greater suppression than when given separately. These findings suggest that EPF may be a potential candidate for use in treatment of MS and may be of use in combined therapy with IFN-β.