Cytokines and immune regulation in the nervous system

Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a CD⁴⁺ T cell-mediated inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that serves as an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS) with which it shares numerous clinical, immunological, and histological parallels. EAE may be induced by active immunization with myelin proteins or peptides or through the adoptive transfer of myelin-specific CD⁴⁺ T cells and leads to a relapsing-remitting, chronic, or monophasic clinical presentation based on the strain of rodent and the inducing antigen. These differences in disease manifestation have led to numerous studies investigating the potentialintrinsic pathogenic and regulatory mechanisms of CNS autoimmune disease and have often focused on the roles of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in these processes.