Enhancement of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis severity by ultrasound emulsification of antigen/adjuvant in distinct strains of mice

Susceptibility to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is associated with the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) haplotype. In this study EAE could be induced in six out of ten mice of the resistant DBA/2 (H-2d) strain by ultrasound emulsified antigen/adjuvant, whereas none of the mice immunized with the conventional adjuvant developed the disease. Similar results were previously obtained for the MHC identical BALB/c mice. Further, while only few T cells were present in the central nervous systems (CNS) of the diseased DBA/2 mice, macrophages formed the majority of the infiltrates. In congenic BALB.B (H-2b) and BALB.K (H-2 k) mice, EAE could be induced with both sonicated and extruded antigen/adjuvant emulsion. The results indicate that the EAE resistance in mice carrying the H-2d MHC haplotype is dependent on the physical structure of the immunogen.