The influence of disease duration, clinical course, and immunosuppressive therapy on the synthesis of intrathecal oligoclonal IgG bands in multiple sclerosis.

We investigated the impact of disease duration, clinical course and immunosuppressive therapy on intrathecal IgG synthesis in multiple sclerosis (MS). Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was obtained twice, 8-10 years apart, from 20 MS patients and 26 healthy controls, and from 22 MS patients before and after two years of mitoxantrone treatment. The oligoclonal IgG band patterns changed in 15 patients at long-term follow-up, but were only influenced in 4 patients by mitoxantrone therapy. The CSF B-cell-regulating chemokine CXCL13 correlated with intrathecal IgG production suggesting a B-cell-dependence of intrathecal IgG synthesis in MS.