A Critical Role for Lymphotoxin in Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis

The lymphotoxin (LT)/tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family has been implicated in the neurologic inflammatory diseases multiple sclerosis (MS) and experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE). To determine the role of individual family members in EAE, C57BL/6 mice, LT-α–deficient (LT-α(−/−) mice), or LT-β–deficient (LT-β(−/−) mice), and their wild-type (WT) littermates were immunized with rat myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) peptide 35-55. C57BL/6 and WT mice developed chronic, sustained paralytic disease with average maximum clinical scores of 3.5 and disease indices (a measure of day of onset and sustained disease scores) ranging from 367 to 663 with central nervous system (CNS) inflammation and demyelination. LT-α(−/−) mice were primed so that their splenic lymphocytes proliferated in response to MOG 35-55 and the mice produced anti-MOG antibody. However, LT-α(−/−) mice were quite resistant to EAE with low average clinical scores (<1), an average disease index of 61, and the negligible CNS inflammation and demyelination. WT T cells transferred EAE to LT-α(−/−) recipients. LT-β(−/−) mice were susceptible to EAE, though less than WT, with an average maximum clinical score of 1.9 and disease index of 312. These data implicate T cell production of LT-α in MOG EAE and support a major role for LT-α3, a minor role for the LT-α/β complex, and by inference, no role for TNF-α.