Although considered an autoimmune disease, the mechanisms underlying oligodendrocyte/myelin injury in multiple sclerosis (MS) remain to be established. The aim of this study was to evaluate the capacity and requirements for natural killer (NK) cells to induce cytotoxicity of autologous human adult central nervous system derived oligodendrocytes (OLs) as measured by cytotoxicity assays (51Cr release). Levels of cytotoxicity directed at either heterologous OLs or U251 glioma cell targets correlated with progressive enrichment for NK cells and were dependent on exposure of the NK cells to IL-2. We found that the IL-2 treated enriched NK cell preparations were capable of mediating significant cytotoxicity of autologous OLs. These results suggest IL-2 activated NK cells can induce autologous OL injury, bypassing putative protective effects of self-MHC class I molecules. The inflammatory milieu in MS lesions could provide conditions required for NK cell activation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.31275 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Morse, Rachel H. A. |
| Contributors | Antel, Jack P. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Microbiology and Immunology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001802956, proquestno: MQ70471, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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