J Immunol 2003 May 1;170(9):4776-84
Teige I, Treschow A, Teige A, Mattsson R, Navikas V, Leanderson T,
Holmdahl R, Issazadeh-Navikas S.
Sections for Medical Inflammation Research and Immunology, Department
of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden.
Since the basic mechanisms behind the beneficial effects of IFN-beta in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients are still obscure, here we have investigated the effects of IFN-beta gene disruption on the commonly used animal model for MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE).
We show that IFN-beta knockout (KO) mice are more susceptible to EAE than their wild-type (wt) littermates; they develop more severe and chronic neurological symptoms with more extensive CNS inflammation and demyelination.
However, there was no discrepancy observed between wt and KO mice regarding the capacity of T cells to proliferate or produce IFN-gamma in response to recall Ag.
Consequently, we addressed the effect of IFN-beta on encephalitogenic T cell development and the disease initiation phase by passive transfer of autoreactive T cells from KO or wt littermates to both groups of mice.
Interestingly, IFN-beta KO mice acquired a higher incidence and augmented EAE regardless of the source of T cells.
This shows that the anti-inflammatory effect of endogenous IFN-beta is predominantly exerted on the effector phase of the disease.
Histopathological investigations of CNS in the effector phase revealed an extensive microglia activation and TNF-alpha production in IFN-beta KO mice; this was virtually absent in wt littermates.
This coincided with an increase in effector functions of T cells in IFN-beta KO mice, as measured by IFN-gamma and IL-4 production.
We suggest that lack of endogenous IFN-beta in CNS leads to augmented microglia activation, resulting in a sustained inflammation, cytokine production, and tissue damage with consequent chronic neurological deficits.