Induction of resistance to experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in newborn guinea pigs.

It was observed that treatment of mother guinea pigs with myelin basic protein (MBP) in encephalitogenic form during pregnancy (1) (5) and in nonencephalitogenic form during pregnancy and/or lactation (3) resulted in a temporary resistance to experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) in their offspring. The nature of the factor(s) transferred from the mother to the progeny and responsible for induction of the unresponsiveness to an EAE-provoking challenge at maturity, is not known. These might be antibodies, cells or tolerogenic fragments of the MBP molecule. The aim of the present study was to prove the possibility for active induction of resistance to EAE in newborn guinea pigs by their immunization with MBP or spinal cord homogenate (SCH) in nonencephalitogenic form. The stability of thus induced resistance was tested by cyclophosphamide (CY) and host versus graft reaction (HVGR).