More MS news articles for November 2002

Efficacy of leukemia inhibitory factor in experimental autoimmune neuritis

http://www.elsevier.com/gej-ng/10/27/37/138/25/31/abstract.html

Journal of Neuroimmunology, Vol. 133 (1-2) (2002) pp. 56-59
M. Laurà a,b , N.A. Gregson b, Y. Curmi b and R.A.C. Hughes b
a Department of Neurological Sciences, Psychiatry and Anaesthesiology, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy
b Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Medicine, Hodgkin Building, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 1UL, UK

Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a pleiotropic cytokine that exerts neurotrophic and myotrophic actions.

We have investigated the effect of LIF in experimental autoimmune neuritis (EAN), an animal model of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).

Treatment with LIF at the onset of the disease showed a slight, but not significant, improvement in the clinical course but no effect on nerve histology.