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The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA 19104
The Golli-MBP transcription unit contains three Golli-specific
exons as well as the seven exons of the classical myelin basic protein
(MBP) gene and encodes alternatively spliced proteins that share amino
acid sequence with MBP. Unlike MBP, which is a late Ag expressed only
in the nervous system, Golli exon-containing gene products are
expressed both pre- and postnatally at many sites, including lymphoid
tissue, as well as in the central nervous system. To investigate
whether Golli-MBP peptides unique to Golli would result in neurological
disease, we immunized rats and observed a novel neurological disease
characterized by mild paralysis and the presence of groups of
lymphocytes in the subarachnoid space but not in the parenchyma of the
brain. Disease was induced by Th1-type T cells that displayed an
unusual activation phenotype. Primary stimulation in vitro induced T
cell proliferation with increased surface CD45RC that did not become
down-regulated as it did in other Ag-stimulated cultures. Secondary
stimulation of this CD45RChigh population with Ag, however,
did not induce proliferation or IL-2 production, although an
IFN-
-producing population resulted. Proliferation could be induced
by secondary stimulation with IL-2 or PMA-ionomycin, suggesting an
anergic T cell population. Cells could adoptively transfer disease
after secondary stimulation with IL-2, but not with Ag alone. These
responses are suggestive of a chronically stimulated, anergic
population that can be transiently activated to cause disease, fall
back into an anergic state, and reactivated to cause disease again.
Such a scenario may be important in chronic human
disease.
This article has been cited by other articles:
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J.-M. Feng, I. M. Givogri, E. R. Bongarzone, C. Campagnoni, E. Jacobs, V. W. Handley, V. Schonmann, and A. T. Campagnoni Thymocytes Express the golli Products of the Myelin Basic Protein Gene and Levels of Expression Are Stage Dependent J. Immunol., November 15, 2000; 165(10): 5443 - 5450. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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