Adoptive transfer of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis using serum-free, chemically defined in vitro culture conditions.

Enhanced adoptive transfer of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) in rats requires in vitro culture of encephalitogen-sensitized donor spleen cells with either myelin basic protein or T-cell mitogen for 18-72 h prior to transfer to unimmunized recipients. The required in vitro culture period offers an opportunity to address in detail cellular and molecular immunoregulatory processes involved in the development of EAE. Conventional culture conditions using fetal bovine serum may impose analytical limitations due to the chemical complexity of the media. To permit better definition of the chemical events associated with the development of EAE, we report the successful adoptive transfer of EAE in Lewis rats using completely chemically defined, serum-free culture conditions.