Treatment of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis by vitamin in animal model

Study purposed to determine the effectiveness of vitamin treatment in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS) by comparing several blood serum inflammatory markers, neurological deficiency and histopathological changes in untreated and treated EAE animals. Eighteen, 9-13 week old, male Wistar rats were immunised by 100 μl MOG injection. Clinical signs of EAE scored by a masked investigator. After EAE exposition all rats were divided equally as untreated control and experimental group treated by vitamins (E, C, D3). Blood was obtained from all rats before and after immunization and on 7th day of treatment. ELISA method was used to detect the serum cytokine contents of IL-6, IFN-γ, IL-10. On 10th day of disease the rats were euthanized and transverse sections of spinal cord were divided in 16 areas with score of 1 for each area showing lymphocyte infiltration or demyelination. Mann-Whitney U-test was used for determining the level of significance of differences between sample means. On 7th day of treatment neurological deficiency stayed unchanged in control and was ameliorated in experimental group (p<0.05). Significant histopathological differences were found between control and experimental groups on 10th day of EAE. Serum levels of IFN-γ, IL-6 and IL-10 were elevated after exposition of EAE against healthy rats, while on 7th day of treatment the experimental group revealed the significant differences as compared to untreated control. Positive correlation was found between IL-6 and IFN-γ serum contents and neurological deficiency on 7th day of disease (r=+0.53, p<0.02 and r=+0.49; p<0.01).