Suppression of experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis in IL-10 gene-disrupted mice is associated with reduced B cells and serum cytotoxicity on mouse cell line expressing AChR.

To analyze the role of interleukin-10 (IL-10) in experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis (EAMG) pathogenesis, we induced clinical EAMG in C57BL/6 and IL-10 gene-knockout (KO) mice. IL-10 KO mice had a lower incidence and severity of EAMG, with less muscle acetylcholine receptor (AChR) loss. AChR-immunized IL-10 KO mice showed a significantly higher AChR-specific proliferative response, altered cytokine response, lower number of class II-positive cells and B-cells, but a greater CD5(+)CD19(+) population than C57BL/6 mice. The lower clinical incidence in IL-10 KO could be explained not by a reduction of the quantity, but by a possible difference in the pathogenicity of anti-AChR antibodies.