Bioenergetics of the spinal cord in experimental autoimmune encephalitis of rats.

Mariam Al-Shamsi,Abdul-Kader Souid,Saeed Tareq,Marwa F Ibrahim,Eric P K Mensah-Brown,Allen Shahin

doi:10.1186/s12868-015-0175-1

Abstract

BackgroundMitochondrial dysregulation is important in axonal damage and demyelination in multiple sclerosis (MS) and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). There is however, no evidence in the literature of any study that has examined cellular bioenergetics of the central nervous system (CNS) during the early development and clinical course of EAE. EAE, a rodent model of relapsing/remitting MS, is a CD4+ T cell-mediated disease of the CNS. We hypothesize that CNS bioenergetics might predict prognosis, and that preserved bioenergetics might underlie the remission from disease. The study aims therefore, to determine whether the clinical history of EAE is influenced by cellular respiration of the CNS in susceptible Dark Agouti (DA) and resistant Albino Oxford (AO) rats.MethodsExperimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis was induced by myelin basic protein in complete Freud Adjuvant in the footpads of DA and AO rats. A phosphorescence analyzer that determines cellular respiration was used to monitor oxygen consumption and ATP concentration was measured using the Enliten ATP assay system. Disease pathology was demonstrated by H&E and Luxol fast blue staining of sections of the lumbar regions of the spinal cord. Mitochondrial size in relation to axonal size was determined by electron microscopy. Apoptosis was studied by HPLC measurement of intracellular caspase-3 activity and caspase immunohistochemistry. Role and source of caspase 1 was studied by double immunofluorescence with antibodies for caspase-1, microglia (anti-Iba1) and astrocytes (anti-GFAP).ResultsThe cellular respiration of the CNS did not vary between diseased and normal rats. We also demonstrate here, that at the peak of disease, inflammation as shown by caspase-1, produced by activated microglia and infiltrating cells, was significant in susceptible DA rats. The mitochondrial:axonal size ratio did not vary in the different groups although mitochondria were smaller in spinal cords of diseased DA rats. Demyelination, observed only in areas of mononuclear infiltration of the spinal cord of diseased DA rats, was demonstrated by light microscopy and electron microscopy.ConclusionWe conclude that EAE at this early stage does not significantly affect CNS cellular respiration and this might underlie the reason for the recovery of diseased rats.

Highlights

Mitochondrial dysregulation is important in axonal damage and demyelination in multiple sclerosis (MS) and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)
By means of double immunofluorescence using rabbit anti-caspase 1 either with goat anti- Ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1 (Iba-1) for microglia [25] and with mouse anti glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) [26] for astrocytes, we have shown that caspase 1 induced inflammation [27] is important in disease development in EAE and microglia together with other infiltrating mononuclear cells are the source of caspase-1
Dark Agouti (DA) and Albino Oxford (AO) rats were immunized in the foot pads with myelin basic protein (MBP) in complete Freund’s adjuvant

Summary

Introduction

Mitochondrial dysregulation is important in axonal damage and demyelination in multiple sclerosis (MS) and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). There is no evidence in the literature of any study that has examined cellular bioenergetics of the central nervous system (CNS) during the early development and clinical course of EAE. EAE, a rodent model of relapsing/remitting MS, is a CD4+ T cell-mediated disease of the CNS. Work by Mahad et al [1] and several others have demonstrated the importance of mitochondrial dysregulation and mitochondria-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) to axonal damage and demyelination. While the EAE model has been successfully employed to investigate the mechanism of MS, there is no evidence in the literature of any study that has examined cellular bioenergetics of the central nervous system (CNS) during the early development and clinical course of EAE. Recovery has been attributed to the downregulation of proinflammatory cytokines resulting from the clearance of infiltrating T cells by activated microglia [9]

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