Similar pattern of MCP-1 expression in spinal cords and eyes of Lewis rats with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis associated anterior uveitis

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is a member of the CC chemokine family responsible for the recruitment of T cells that have been found during inflammation of the spinal cord in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in Lewis rats immunized with myelin basic protein (MBP). Lewis rats injected with MBP also developed anterior uveitis (AU), which coincided with the onset of EAE. In the present studies, we examined the expression and distribution of MCP-1 in the eye and spinal cord during disease and compared it to the expression of Th1 cell type cytokines. Initially, MCP-1 expression was detected at the preclinical phase in the iris/ciliary body and lumbar spinal cord and increased during the course of EAE/AU. Mononuclear infiltrating cells and endothelial cells and astrocytes of the CNS could be identified as a source of MCP-1 by in situ hybridization. Kinetics of expression of Th1 characteristic cytokines such as IL-2 and IFNQγ was in agreement with the expression of MCP-1 chemokine. Moreover, induction of the gene expression of MCP-1 seemed to occur earlier than that of MIP-2, and it correlated with increasing disease severity. MCP-1 seems to contribute to the initial recruitment of inflammatory cells into both the tissues of the eye and CNS over the course of disease.