ACUTE DISSEMINATED ENCEPHALOMYELITIS FOLLOWING IMMUNIZATION WITH HOMOLOGOUS BRAIN EXTRACTS

Abstract

1. A severe demyelinating condition characterized by ataxia and paralysis, in some instances leading to death, was produced in thirty-five of a total of fifty-five dogs following immunization with homologous brain tissue combined with Freund's adjuvants. In more than 30 per cent of instances paralysis did not occur until immunization was continued for 6 or more months. Only eight dogs became paralyzed after a single injection of antigen. The condition appeared between 6 and 15 days after the last injection in all animals, irrespective of the total number of injections or the duration of immunization. 2. An antibody which reacted in complement fixation tests with aqueous and alcoholic extracts of homologous brain tissue was demonstrable in the majority of immunized dogs, whether or not the animals became paralyzed. It appeared during or after the 3rd week of immunization, and its occurrence or titer could not be correlated with the incidence of the encephalomyelitis. In general, there were fewer dogs with demonstrable antibody in the paralyzed group than in the non-paralyzed group. 3. A flocculation reaction with alcohol extracts of homologous brain was demonstrated in the serum of immunized dogs. The antigen and antibody involved were apparently identical with those responsible for the complement fixation reactions. 4. The brain tissue component which reacted as antigen in the complement fixation test was present in adult brain from several mammalian species, and peripheral nerve. It was not present in the brain of newborn dogs nor in other unrelated organs. It was demonstrable in brain tissue which had been allowed to autolyze, or treated with 10 per cent formalin. It was not impaired by boiling, or by acid hydrolysis, and was contained in the unsaponifiable fraction of brain lipids. It was separable from cholesterol by digitonin precipitation of the latter. 5. Immunization of dogs with the unsaponifiable fraction of homologous brain, in adjuvants, caused the appearance of antibrain antibody similar to that in animals injected with whole brain. Encephalomyelitis was not observed during a 2 month period of immunization with this fraction. 6. In guinea pigs, an injection of the unsaponifiable fraction of brain, in adjuvants, was followed by fatal meningoencephalitis, but the identity of the state with that caused by whole brain antigens was not established.