Why the study?
Is there evidence of a retrovirus in long-term cultured cerebrospinal fluid cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with multiple sclerosis?
Is there evidence of a retrovirus in long-term cultured cerebrospinal fluid cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with multiple sclerosis?
The study found no evidence to support the presence of a retrovirus in cultured cells from patients with multiple sclerosis.
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No evidence of retrovirus in MS cell cultures; challenges retroviral hypothesis while leaving open refined viral testing.
Long-term peripheral blood mononuclear cell (MNC) cultures stimulated with interleukin 2 (IL-2) or IL-2 + phytohemagglutinin were established from 33 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, 9 with other neurological diseases (OND), and 24 normal controls (C). Cultures were analysed for growth characteristics, reverse transcriptase (RT) in the culture medium, 2'-5' oligoadenylate synthetase in the cells, and cell morphology. None of these parameters differed in the MS group compared with the OND and C groups. Furthermore, 11 cerebrospinal fluid cell cultures were established without feeder cells. Morphology studies of the cells and RT assays of the supernatants from these cultures were normal. Induction studies by dexamethasone and 2-bromo-5'-deoxyuridine in 2 of these cultures did not reveal any signs of a virus. The significance of these results for the retrovirus hypothesis is discussed.
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Höllsberg et al. (1989) studied this question.
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