Effect of encephalitogenic protein on migration in agarose of leukocytes from patients with multiple sclerosis. A longitudinal study of patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis or with cerebral infarction.

Ten patients with MS were studied with leukocyte migration in agarose technique to detect changes in reactivity to encephalitogenic protein in connexion with a relapse. Six showed significant reactivity within a few days after the relapse. It decreased or disappeared during the 2 weeks after the relapse, but sometimes reappeared and was found in tests performed 2-3 months later. Five patients with cerebral infarction were studied in a similar way--in three, marked reactivity was noted within a few days after the stroke; in these, reactivity decreased or disappeared in later tests. In the two other patients, reactivity appeared in the second and/or third test. The possibility of a reactivity as in epiphenomenon due to CNS tissue destruction is discussed, and the need for antigens with a more restricted specificity for such an analysis is stressed.