Studies on lymphokine-mediated demyelination in organotypic rat cerebellum in culture

Supernatants of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), containing lymphokines, isolated from MS patients and healthy subjects were tested for demyelinating activity in organotypic culture of the rat cerebellum. PBL were isolated on Ficoll-paque gradient and cultures in RPMI 1640 medium for 72 h with or without phytohemagglutinin and Concanavalin A. Both stimulated and unstimulated PBL supernatants from MS patients consistently demyelinated cerebellum cultures. The supernatants of unstimulated PBL from healthy subjects did not produce demyelination, however, slight effect was present in the cultures treated with PBL stimulated supernatants. The results indicate that lymphokines might be involved in demyelination in MS.