The Journal of Experimental Medicine
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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0022-1007/1997/7/307/ $5.00
The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Volume 186, Number 2, July 21, 1997 307-312

Article

Myelin Basic Protein–specific T Helper 2 (Th2) Cells Cause Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis in Immunodeficient Hosts Rather than Protect Them from the Disease

Juan J. Lafaille*, Fabienne Van de Keere*, Albert L. Hsu{ddagger}, Jody L. Baron*, Werner Haas*, Cedric S. Raine{ddagger}, and Susumu Tonegawa*

From the * Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Cancer Research, and Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139; {ddagger} Department of Pathology (Neuropathology), Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461

Chronic inflammatory autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis are caused by CD4+ Th1 cells. Because Th2 cells antagonize Th1 cell functions in several ways, it is believed that immune deviation towards Th2 can prevent or cure autoimmune diseases. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a demyelinating disease used as a model for multiple sclerosis. Using an adoptive transfer system we assessed the role of Th1 and Th2 cells in EAE. In vitro generated Th1 and Th2 cells from myelin basic protein (MBP)-specific TCR transgenic mice were transferred into normal and immunodeficient mice. Th1 cells caused EAE in all recipients after a brief preclinical phase. Surprisingly, Th2 cells also caused EAE in RAG-1 KO mice and in {alpha}β T cell–deficient mice, albeit after a longer preclinical phase. Normal or {gamma}{delta} T cell–deficient mice were resistant to EAE induced by Th2 cells. The histopathological features of this disease resembled those of an allergic process. In addition, disease induction by Th1 cells was not altered by coadmininstration of Th2 cells in any of the recipients. These findings indicate that MBP-specific Th2 cells have the potential to induce EAE and that the disease induced by previously activated Th1 cells cannot be prevented by normal lymphocytes nor by previously activated Th2 cells.

Address correspondence to Susumu Tonegawa, Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 40 Ames St. E17-353, Cambridge, MA 02139. Phone: 617-253-6459; FAX: 617-258-6893. Dr. Lafaille's current address is Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, and Department of Pathology, New York University School of Medicine, New York 10016. Dr. Baron's present address is Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143.

Note added in proof. In the accompanying manuscript, Pakala et al. describe diabetes caused by Th2 cells in immune-compromised mice.

1 Abbreviations used in this paper: CNS, central nervous system; EAE, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis; MBP, myelin basic protein; MS, multiple sclerosis; PLP, proteolipid protein.


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