Differentiation of the humoral immune response in inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system

Abstract

The three main immunoglobulin classes obey the basic principles of passive protein transfer at the blood-CSF barrier and the serum-derived portions could therefore be quantified with the help of the permeability marker albumin. The Ig fractions secreted into the CSF by sessile plasma cell clones have been determined in various inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system. The humoral immune response in multiple sclerosis and chronic encephalitis of unknown cause was dominated by IgG antibodies. In most other inflammatory diseases IgA and IgM were concomitantly synthesized, e.g. in neurosyphilis and meningoencephalitis caused by viruses of the herpes group. In tick-borne meningopolyneuritis Bannwarth, only IgM and in bacterial meningitis only IgA may be produced locally. The detection of a secretory immunoglobulin fraction in the CSF may be the sole laboratory parameter in chronic inflammatory processes of the nervous system.