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Pregnant mice were given 50 mg/kg cocaine HCl (1% solution, sc) once daily from gestation days 7 through 18 (sperm positive = day 0; term = day 19). Pair-fed and untreated control groups were also used. The pregnant cocaine-treated females showed normal weight gain and food consumption but had significantly increased water consumption. The cocaine-treated group had a significant increase in embryonic resorptions but no significant effects on stillbirths or postnatal mortality. The offspring of cocaine-treated females had significantly reduced birth weights and postnatal weight gains up to the age of 28 days. There was also a delay in their ear opening but not in other maturational milestones. Increased water consumption following cocaine treatment has been reported by other studies. We speculate that cocaine has a diuretic effect. We discuss the implications of this effect during pregnancy.

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The concentration of myelin basic protein (MBP) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) correlates with the development of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis following intradermal injection with encephalitogen in adjuvant; MBP is absent in controls inoculated with adjuvants only. The presence of MBP is a sensitive indicator of disease inasmuch as CNS-inoculated mice with neurologic signs had an average of 0.29 ng/microliter of MBP in their CSF and controls, including normal or adjuvants only, had an average of 0.03 ng/microliter. The amount present per microliter of CSF, as well as the absolute amount, obtained from an individual mouse do not always reflect the severity of disease as indicated by clinical signs and the pathology observed in a sampling of the neuraxis. The presence of MBP does correlate with demyelination, although the extent of pathology observed by light microscopy in the mouse model is minimal, associated only with the inflammatory response, and does not extend beyond the zone of the perivascular cuff.

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Myelin basic protein (MBP) appears frequently in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of mice with chronic demyelination following intracerebral infection with Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV); antibody to MBP can frequently be found in the sera. The peaks of the immune responses to both MBP and TMEV coincide with the time course of the clinical signs of disease. Adsorption of mouse sera with TMEV or MBP indicate the non-identity of the antigens and the specificity of the antisera as measured by ELISA. Immunoblot analysis of sera confirmed the ELISA findings. The mechanism of induction of antibody directed against MBP and its role in TMEV-associated demyelination remain to be determined.

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Cardiotoxin D from Naja naja siamensis is cytotoxic to T-lymphocytes above 150 femtomoles/10(6) cells. Equivalent lysis of macrophages or B-lymphocytes requires at least 1000 times more toxin. Reduction and carboxamidomethylation of cardiotoxin D does not effect T cell lysis. At higher toxin concentrations, 50% T-cell lysis occurs within 10 min. Splenocytes cultured with mitogens are up to five times more susceptible to toxin than unstimulated cells. Cardiotoxin D may directly disrupt the plasma membrane, since lysis is unaltered at 4 degrees C.

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Histopathologic evaluation of three metal alloys for chronic implantation in the central nervous system (CNS) was undertaken in rabbits. Throughout the 8 month evaluation period the inflammatory response to the alloys was bland. Two of the alloys tested (chromium based MP35N, Trademark of the Standard Pressed Steel Company, and a stainless steel alloy, BG42 VacArc, Trademark of Latrobe Steel) appeared suitable as CNS implants. The third alloy (stainless steel 440C, Carpenter Steel Company) showed more corrosion than the other alloys, and may be less suitable for implantation. While E. cuniculi infection was found in four rabbits, the infection did not directly interfere with the assessment of the histologic changes directly due to the implants. Autoantibodies to a brain constituent were not observed.

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Antibody against human nicotinic acetylcholine receptor [Ab(AcChR)] was measured in the sera obtained from 55 patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) using both radioimmunoassay (RIA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). By at least one assay, 91% of the patients had elevated Ab(AcChR). We found no correlation between the amount of Ab(AcChR) measured by RIA and that measured by ELISA. Patient subpopulations defined by ELISA- or RIA-measured Ab(AcChR) were associated with different disease durations. All of those who had high Ab(AcChR) levels by both assays had experienced symptoms for less than 2 years. 87% of those with high Ab(AcChR) levels by ELISA had had MG for less than 4 years. Those patients with high Ab(AcChR) only by RIA had a mean disease duration of over 8 years. With regard to correlations of Ab(AcChR) with patient age and sex, females under 50 years of age had high levels of Ab(AcChR) by RIA, but had lower levels by ELISA, whereas men over 50 had high Ab(AcChR) levels by ELISA. Using either assay, no relationship was established between concentrations of Ab(AcChR) and the patient's functional status, previous thymectomy, or current therapy. In this study, 16% of the MG patients with elevated Ab(AcChR) would have been considered within the non-disease range of Ab(AcChR) had only the RIA been performed, thus recommending the routine use of both assays for diagnostic purposes.

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The nature of the role of the immune response to TMEV in the development of LODD after TMEV infection was examined by different means. Immunosuppression by both cyclophosphamide (postinfection) or adult thymectomy and ATS treatment (preinfection) did not inhibit clinical LODD. Adoptive transfer of spleen cells from infected donors with LODD facilitates LODD in the recipients compared with i.v. transfer of the freeze-thaw supernatants from such suspensions (although virus is present in splenocyte suspensions). The immune response to TMEV, both lymphoproliferative and antibody, reaches a peak coincidental with the development of LODD. The role of the immune response is equivocal depending on the stage of the viral infection, the timing of immunosuppressive treatment, and assessment.

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Because of the potential role of Natural Killer (NK) cells in viral immunity and immunoregulation, we have undertaken a study of NK activity of peripheral blood lymphocytes from both Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Myasthenia Gravis (MG) patients, two chronic diseases in which a viral etiology and an induced autoregulatory abnormality are strongly implicated. No significant difference between the mean NK activity in MS patients and controls was observed. A difference was observed between the NK activity of female MG patients and female controls, but no difference was seen between male MG patients and controls.

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We used a "sandwich"-type immunoenzymometric assay (IEMA) and a radioimmunoassay (RIA) to measure antibody against the human nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in serum from individuals with myasthenia gravis, with markedly different results for certain specimens, as measured by the two techniques. In some cases, antibody concentrations were high by RIA but low by IEMA; in others, the reverse was found. Such differences persisted through 30 months after thymectomy. An investigation of potential causes of this disparity suggests that high IEMA measurements reflect specific anti-receptor antibody and are not artifactual. The IEMA is recommended as an adjunct to the RIA because some patients with myasthenia gravis who have low concentrations of anti-receptor antibodies as measured by RIA have significantly above-normal concentrations of anti-receptor antibodies as measured by IEMA.

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Affinity columns for the separation of rabbit antibodies (Abs) to the purified nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AcChR) from Torpedo californica electroplax were constructed in two ways: (1) by direct cross-linking of purified AcChR to cyanogen bromide activated Sepharose 4B, and (2) by first cross-linking a purified curarimimetic neurotoxin to cyanogen bromide activated Sepharose 4B, subsequently saturating with AcChR, and finally cross-linking the toxin to noncovalently bound receptors with bisimidate cross-linkers such as dimethyl suberimidate (DMS). Ab(AcChR) from pooled rabbit antisera were chromatographed in near stoichiometric proportions to the AcChR bound to the column to allow equilibrium selection of antibodies directed against sites which were not sterically hindered. The concept that columns of the second type subfractionate Ab(AcChR) was tested by analyzing Ab(AcChR) from column fractions with an ELISA and radioimmunoassay (RIA) procedure. The ELISA was constructed to that the exposed face of the AcChR was the same as that expected for columns of the second type, i.e. for the internal or cytoplasmic face. Enhanced ratios of ELISA to RIA measures of Ab(AcChR) reflected substantial purification of cytoplasmic face antibodies in DMS-cross linked columns. Total Ab(AcChR) was measured by RIA. Both types of columns gave substantial purification of tightly bound antibodies, i.e. those which were eluted with 3M potassium thiocyanate. Thirty-fifty percent of the IgG eluted was found in these fractions, which contained 2-6% of the total eluted protein. Approximately half of the total IgG present in these fractions represented specific IgG against AcChR. Both types of columns could be reutilized giving similar results; however, their efficiency was diminished.

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A test for diminished neuromuscular function in animals with experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis is described. Within minutes following an injection of gallamine triethiodide, mice exhibit a dramatic yet transient response which is dose-dependent. Mice previously inoculated with acetylcholine receptor are approximately twice as sensitive to gallamine as normal mice. Positive results have been found in over 80% of receptor-inoculated BALB/c mice and in 94% of C57Bl/6 mice.

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Normal, untreated syngeneic recipients of lymphocytes from mice with experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) do not generally express adoptively transferred disease. Cell transfer of EAE is more successful when syngeneic recipients are treated with cyclophosphamide (CY) prior to the injection of donor cells. Normal, untreated recipients that do not develop EAE after receiving EAE donor lymphocytes are also unresponsive to subsequent encephalitogenic challenge. Those CY-treated recipients that fail to develop EAE after cell transfer do develop EAE after subsequent challenge. After reconstitution with normal splenic lymphocytes, CY-treated recipients do not develop EAE after subsequent challenge. These findings suggest the presence of an intrinsic natural suppressor cell subpopulation in naive mice which modulate the expression of adoptively transferred T lymphocytes.

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An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay is described for measurement of antibody against Torpedo acetylcholine receptor. As here developed, the assay is highly sensitive, reproducible, and requires small quantities of immunological reagents. Relative measurements of antibody concentration by this method are proportional to those determined by radioimmunoassay.

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Two preparations of myelin basic protein (MBP) were derived from an acid excretion of chloroform-methanol defatted bovine spinal cord. The first was purified by ion-exchange chromatography using guanidine-HCl; the second, by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a triethylamine eluant. Both methods of preparation yield MBP which is identical on acid-urea polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and which has identical encephalitogenic potency. Because of the greater time-efficiency of the HPLC system with no deleterious side effects due to buffer contamination, this latter method can be recommended for MBP purification.

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We report here the results of EAE induction in 1758 mice from 9 inbred strains, 5 H-2 congenic strains, and 6 F1 hybrids. EAE responsiveness is under the primary control of genes outside the H-2 complex. The F1 data do not show a unifactorial inheritance of EAE responsiveness. The F1 data do imply a maternal factor, sex hormone, or sex-linked gene(s) that modifies EAE responsiveness. The data suggest that the H-2 complex modifies the degree of EAE responsiveness. This modulatory effect by H-2 could account for the contradictory reports in the literature on the association of H-2 type and EAE responsiveness.

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Two co-extractable myelin basic proteins (MBP) were isolated and purified from mouse brain and designated: large (L), estimated to be composed of 160-164 amino acid residues, and small (S), estimated to contain 114-115 residues. The two proteins migrate separately in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) in a pattern similar to rat MBP-S and MBP-L; mouse MBP-L resembles rat MBP-L, human, bovine and guinea pig MBP by PAGE and by amino acid analysis. This report demonstrates for the first time that mouse MPB-L alone, and not mouse MBP-S, is encephalitogenic for guinea pigs and mice.

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Guinea pigs can be rendered unresponsive to experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) challenge by prior injections of myelin basic protein (BP) or peptides derived from BP. The synthesized tryptophan-containing peptide (TrpP, corresponding to residues 114-122) which is the primary encephalitogenic sequence in BP (for guinea pigs) had been conjugated to the non-central nervous system protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) and used for EAE challenge. It has been shown in this study that prechallenge treatment with the BSA carrier alone can significantly inhibit the induction of EAE by TrpP-BSA conjugate. That carrier treatment is immunologically specific was determined when prior treatment with cytochrome c did not protect animals from EAE challenge with TrpP conjugated to BSA. In addition, in disease induced with BP or TrpP, and while TrpP did protect guinea pigs challenged with TrpP, it did not protect those challenged with BP. This last finding raises the possibility of a second encephalitogenic sequence in BP or an important role for the carrier in the TrpP conjugate.

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