[Demyelination and autoimmunity]

Autoimmune diseases are experimental models of human demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis and idiopathic polyneuritis: experimental auto-immune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and experimental autoimmune neuritis. Demyelinating lesions occurring in chronic EAE could be due to the action of autoantibodies rather than to a cellular action involving lymphokines. An antibody-dependent cellular myelinotoxicity could also be the mechanism responsible for demyelination; these mechanisms are suggested by in vitro and in vivo demyelination experiments and by the presence of demyelinating autoantibodies against component(s) of myelin in EAE area. The demyelinating mechanisms could be the same in multiple sclerosis. However, they have not been proven so far.