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NEUROLOGY 1988;38:28
© 1988 American Academy of Neurology

Search for autonomously proliferating spinal fluid lymphocytes in patients with multiple sclerosis

Gary Birnbaum, MD, Sandra Aubitz, BA and Linda Kotilinek, BS

Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, School of Medicine, Minneapolis, MN.

Recently published reports have suggested that multiple sclerosis (MS) may be associated with human retrovirus infection. Indeed, an autonomously proliferating T-cell clone was isolated from the CSF of an MS patient, an observation interpreted as indicating an infection with human T lymphotropic virus I (HTLV I). In view of these findings, we undertook a systematic search for autonomously proliferating cells in the spinal fluids of MS patients and those with other neurologic diseases (OND). In vivo activated blast cells were isolated from the CSF of six MS patients and six OND controls. A total of 442 clones were grown from these cells and assayed for their ability to proliferate independently, without the need for T cell-produced lymphokines. No autonomously proliferating clones were detected. Thus, while our data do not exclude the possibility that HTLV I transformed cells may exist in the CSF of MS patients, they do suggest that such cells are exceptional.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Birnbaum, Box 92, Mayo Building, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455.

Supported by research grants #RG-1516 from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and #RO1-NS 20642 from the National Institutes of Health.

Received January 21, 1987. Accepted for publication in final form March 13, 1987.






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