Induction of autoimmune reactions to myelin basic protein in measles virus encephalitis in Lewis rats

Intracerebral inoculation of weanling Lewis rats with measles virus led to the development of subacute measles encephalomyelitis (SAME) 4–8 weeks after infection. The disease is characterized pathologically by an intense inflammatory infiltration within both the white and grey matter of the central nervous system (CNS) without apparent demyelination. Both during and after SAME splenic lymphocytes from these animals could be restimulated in vitro to proliferate in the presence of myelin basic protein (MBP). MBP-specific class II MHC-restricted T cell lines were isolated from this cell population. They were shown to exhibit no cross-reactivity with measles virus and to induce experimental allergic encephalitis (EAE) in naive syngeneic recipients following adoptive transfer. The clinical and histopathological signs of this T cell-mediated disease were identical to that seen in classical T cell-mediated EAE. A humoral immune response to MBP was only detected in a limited number of those rats with SAME. These results indicate that autoimmune reactions to brain antigen can arise during measles virus infection which may contribute to the pathogenesis of measles virus-associated encephalomyelitis.