Dr. M. Schwartz and colleagues from The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, and others from Tel-Aviv University Beit Levinstein Hospital in Raanana, injured the spinal cord of 18 rats and intra-peritoneally injected them with a single dose of T cells against MBP, T cells against the non-self antigen ovalbumin, or saline.

The researchers found that recovery began earlier, within 11 days, in rats treated with anti-MBP T cells than in the control animals, and recovery was significantly greater in this group at all later time points. Rats treated with anti-MBP T cells could move all their joints and even support their weight in some cases, while control rats showed an almost complete lack of spontaneous motor activity.

Recovery was also observed in neural tissue in the spinal cord of anti-MBP T cell-treated rats. Two months after the injury, rats treated with autoimmune T cells had less loss of tissue at the site of the injury than the control rats and showed well-organized spared neural tissue with few cysts. Control rats showed a gap in neural tissue at the injury site with large cysts.

"The adaptive T-cell immune response can be protective even when there is no invasion by foreign pathogens," the authors conclude in the January 22 issue of The Lancet. "In this case the T cells, rather than being directed against invaders, are specifically directed against tissue self-antigens."

"The striking effect of the autoimmune T cells suggests that therapeutic neuroprotection may be achieved by development of the autoimmune T cell model, using suitable autologous autoimmune T cells devoid of the ability to cause permanent autoimmune disease," Dr. Schwartz's group writes. Lancet 2000;355:286-287