Allergic encephalomyelitis: new form featuring polymorphonuclear leukocytes

The passive transfer of allergic encephalomyelitis can be produced in a single day. In work described, the procedure was made to coincide with a transient drug-induced deficiency of lymphocytes. As a result, the lesions of this autoimmune disease contained a predominance of polymorphonuclear leukocytes instead of the usual mononuclear cells. Not only is this a new histologic form of the disease, but the ready recognition of polymorphonuclears as reactive cells provides a powerful new tool for investigating the roles of immunologically specific effector cells and nonspecific reactive cells in production of tissue damage.