Lack of association of a Taq 1 polymorphism of the human myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein gene with multiple sclerosis in a population of patients from the Southampton area

The lesions of multiple sclerosis are most often held to be caused by an immune attack on CNS myelin.1 The nature of the antigens involved remains obscure, but peptides from at least two major myelin proteins—myelin basic protein and proteolipid protein—are known to cause cell mediated demyelination in animals (experimental allergic encephalomyelitis) which in some ways resembles human multiple sclerosis.1 Minor myelin components may presumably also act as autoantigens. Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) is a quantitatively minor myelin protein localised to oligodendrocyte cell bodies and processes and to the outer layer of CNS myelin sheaths. Originally detected by a mouse monoclonal antibody to rat cerebellar glycoproteins, the amino acid sequence of MOG has been deduced from cDNAs of rat, mouse, human, and bovine species and shows a high degree of evolutionary conservation and sequence motifs identifying it as a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily. In common with several …