Correlation Between Neurological Deficits and Spinal Cord Pathological Changes in a Mouse Model of Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a common neuroin-flammatory disease causing a wide spectrum of clinical signs and symptoms. Neuropathological changes in MS including inflammation, demyelination and axonal degeneration are seen in the animal counterpart of MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and are biomarkers to follow the pathophysiology and any pharmacology of MS in experimental studies. To elucidate the pattern of these pathological abnormalities in EAE, different aspects of pathological findings and their correlations were studied in the model. EAE induction was done using myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) 35-55 in C57BL/6 mice and hematoxylin and eosin, Luxol-fast-blue and Bielschowsky staining were used for histopatho-logical evaluation in the lumbar, thoracic and cervical spinal cord. There were significant positive correlations between neurological disease score in EAE mice and each of these pathological findings: inflammation score, demyelination score and axonal degeneration. These correlations were observed regardless of the anatomic regions studied. Inflammation and demyelination scores were significantly associated. Degeneration and demyelination scores were correlated positively also. However, no statistically significant correlation was found between scores of inflammation and degeneration in neither of the three anatomical regions of the spinal cords of EAE mice. This study optimizes the EAE model regarding pathological findings in correlation with neurological deficits in the model. The results will help in better utility of the model in MS research.