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Abstracts of the 8th Meeting of the Italian Peripheral Nerve Study Group: 41
Author(s) -
Laurà M,
Aguennouz M,
Mazzeo A,
Santoro M,
Catania MA,
Calapai G,
Vita G
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of the peripheral nervous system
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1529-8027
pISSN - 1085-9489
DOI - 10.1046/j.1529-8027.2003.00041.x
Subject(s) - neuritis , western blot , myelin , immunohistochemistry , medicine , peripheral nervous system , immune system , pathology , sciatic nerve , electrophoretic mobility shift assay , immunology , transcription factor , central nervous system , chemistry , biochemistry , gene , psychiatry
Nuclear factor kappa B (NF‐kB) is an ubiquitous transcription factor expressed in a wide variety of cells and involved in immune and inflammatory responses. Many recent data suggest his important role in human inflammatory neuropathies. The present study investigated expression and activation of NF‐kB in experimental autoimmune neuritis (EAN), a clinical and histopathological model of acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. EAN was induced in 11 Lewis rats by injection of peripheral bovine myelin. 4 animals, two immunized with complete Freund's adjuvant and two normal, were used as controls. The clinical course was assessed. Immunohistochemistry, western blot of nuclear extract proteins and electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) were performed in the sciatic nerves removed at different times of the disease. Immunoreactivity for the activated form p65 of NF‐kB was found in the endoneurial vessel walls, in the external myelin of some nerve fibers and at level of some endoneurial infiltrating cells 14 and 21 days after immunization. No immunoreactivity was found after 7 days as well as in controls. A single band corresponding to NF‐kB p65 was detected in all animals, except for the normal controls. EMSA analysis showed a complex binding band in all EAN rats, which was stronger in peak and recovery phase of disease. Our results strongly suggest a crucial role of NF‐kB in the genesis of inflammatory demyelination in the peripheral nervous system occurring in EAN.