Figure 5
A higher magnification of the white matter taken from the different sections in Fig. 4, showing in further detail the immunofluorescent staining by anti-I(Glc) antibodies.
Coronal lumbar spinal cord sections from naïve mice as well as from mice inflicted with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE, grade 4, three weeks after disease induction), were incubated with: (a) anti-I(Glc) antibodies from a representative MS patient serum, (b) Total IgG fraction from a normal donor (NBD). Binding to the spinal cord tissue was indicated by fluorescent labeling with anti-human antibody (red). Note that the positive staining of anti-I(Glc) antibodies overlaps with the myelin depicted by staining with antibody to myelin basic protein (MBP, green). Staining by anti-I(Glc) antibodies is lost in spinal cords of EAE-mice, at sites of inflammation (depicted by Hoechst nuclear staining of the infiltrating cells, blue), in parallel to the demyelination.
