Peripheral blood leucocytes from rabbits immunized with encephalitogenic antigen of bovine origin transform in vitro under the influence of the antigen. Transformation was registered as incorporation of tritiated thymidine. A closer analysis showed that lymphoid cells which transform are present in the circulation mainly before the debut of the disease. Similar findings have previously been made on cytotoxic lymphoid cells. A possible explanation is that “sensitized” lymphocytes capable of reaction with the antigen are withdrawn from the circulation at the attack on the central nervous sysem. The implications of these findings for the understanding of similar phenomena at multiple sclerosis are briefly discussed.
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Bergstrand et al. (1971) studied this question.