The IFNc Elispot was carried out according on the manufacturer?s guidelines. IFNc production was measured with an Help Elispot reader . The MOG re-stimulation assay was carried out implementing the Bioplex Th1/Th2 kit according to the producer?s specs. 1 million spleenocytes/well were stimulated with ConA, MOG and MBP in 48-well plates for three days. The concentrations of Th1 and Th2 specified cytokines was measured through the Bioplex 200 process plate reader. Histopathological and Immunohistochemical Analysis On day 10 and 14 p.i., respectively, animals had been euthanized utilizing CO2 and perfused with PBS followed by 4% paraformaldehyde . Paraffin embedded brain and spinal cord crosssections had been dewaxed in xylol, rehydrated and then stained with Hematoxylin & Eosin and Luxol Fast Blue to assess tissue inflammation and demyelination, respectively.
The inflammatory index and demyelination score had been determined from the number and size of demyelinated lesions of each animal on an average of ten complete spinal cord cross-sections and brains as previously described . In p38 MAPK Inhibitors adjacent serial sections IHC examination were carried out by by using antibodies against the following targets: a-CD68 , CD43 , a-Dysferlin , a-Occludin and CCR2 diluted in 10% fetal calf serum in PBS. Control sections have been incubated in the absence of the primary antibody. For IHC, paraffin sections of the spinal cord were treated as previously described . After deparaffinization in xylol, sections were transferred to 90% ethanol. Endogenous peroxidase was blocked by incubation in methanol with 0.02% H2O2 for 30 minutes at room temperature and rehydration to distilled water followed via a 90%, 70%, and 50% ethanol series.
Antigen retrieval was carried out with ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid buffer, pH 8.5, or citrate buffer pH 6.0 by warming for 1 hour in a steamer device . Sections had been incubated in 10% FCS in 0.one M PBS 30 minutes prior to incubation with primary antibody on 4uC, over night. After washing in PBS, sections had been incubated with biotinylated secondary antibody Prucalopride for one hour at RT. All stainings have been performed with biotinavidin peroxidase detection technique and visualized with 3,39diaminobenzidine- tetrahydrochloride . Evaluation was carried out on at least ten whole spinal cord cross-sections per animal by using Leica Polyvar 2 microscope. Toluidine blue staining was carried out on mouse lymph node and spleen tissue harvested on day 7 p.
i., as nicely as on rat spinal cord harvested on day 14 p.i. Tissues had been immersion-fixed with PFA over night at 4uC, cryo-protected in 20% sucrose, embedded and cryo-sectioned. Sections mounted on pre-adhesive glass slides were incubated in a solution containing 0.5% Toluidine blue in 1% NaCl, pH 2.3 for three minutes. The staining was captured implementing an inverted microscope .