SUPPRESSION OF EXPERIMENTAL "ALLERGIC" ENCEPHALOMYELITIS IN GUINEA PIGS BY ENCEPHALITOGENIC PROTEINS EXTRACTED FROM HOMOLOGOUS BRAIN

The intradermal injection of aqueous solutions of certain homologous neural proteins will suppress the encephalomyelitis which is induced in guinea pigs by the previous injection of whole homologous brain with Freund's adjuvants. These neural proteins extracted by dilute acid from defatted guinea pig brain are themselves highly encephalitogenic when injected with adjuvants, but the specificity of this suppression for encephalitogenic as compared to non-encephalitogenic extracts remains to be proven. Suppression is probably not due to a non-specific stress reaction, as indicated by the absence of suppression by intradermal injections of alcohol and by statistically insignificant and inconstant effects of similar injections of tuberculin.