Differential levels of resistance to disease induction and development of relapsing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in two H-2b-restricted mouse strains.

Besides the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, background genes are believed to influence the encephalitogenicity of SJL(H-2(s)) and B10.S (H-2(s)) mice responding to myelin basic protein (MBP). A new mouse strain was constructed to study the effects of the SJL genetic background in mice responding to H-2(b)-restricted neuroantigens. Although the SJL.B (H-2(b)) mouse remained resistant to MBP in active EAE induction, the disease severity was uniformly higher in MOG-induced active EAE and in MBP-induced adoptive EAE when compared to those of B6 (H-2(b)) mice. Treatment of mice with anti-CD25 antibodies prior to immunization caused 60% of SJL.B mice to become susceptible to MBP-induced EAE while only 14% of B6 mice were converted. In addition, MOG-induced EAE in SJL.B mice followed a remitting-relapsing disease course while B6 mice only exhibited monophasic or chronic episodes. The new SJL.B mouse strain provides a valuable tool for studying EAE resistance and remitting-relapsing disease in H-2(b) mice.