Recovery of myelin basic protein reactive T cells from spinal cords of Lewis rats with autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Mononuclear cells were isolated from the spinal cords of 13 Lewis rats with clinical EAE induced by immunization with MBP in complete Freund's adjuvant. MBP-reactive lymphocytes were recovered from nine of these 13 SC-MNC populations by in vitro culture with MBP, followed by propagation of responding lymphocytes in IL 2-containing medium. T cell subset phenotype determination indicated a predominance of helper phenotype T cells in each of the two cultures examined. Clinical EAE was induced in naive Lewis rats by adoptive transfer of MBP-reactive lymphocytes recovered from three of these cultures.