Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis-resistant mice have highly encephalitogenic myelin basic protein (MBP)-specific T cell clones that recognize a MBP peptide with high affinity for MHC class II.

BALB/c mice are resistant to disease induction when experimental protocols that induce experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in susceptible strains of animals are used. We have previously described a panel of myelin basic protein (MBP)-specific CD4+ T cell clones from BALB/c mice, two of which induce moderate EAE when transferred to syngeneic recipients. These clones are I-E(d) restricted and recognize residues 151-160 of mouse MBP. Here, we describe a series of 17 MBP-reactive T cell clones, which were derived from two BALB/c mice. All are I-A(d) restricted and recognize nested epitopes in peptide 59-76 of mouse MBP. Four different TCR V beta chains are used by this panel of clones; these include V beta 8.2 (10/17), V beta 8.1 (2/17), V beta 7 (3/17), and V beta 14 (2/17). Twelve of fourteen clones tested adoptively transferred severe demyelinating EAE to syngeneic recipients. Studies of relative binding affinities of MBP peptides to class II molecules I-A(d) and I-E(d) show that peptide 59-76 binds with extremely high affinity to I-A(d), whereas three peptides that contains residues 151-160 bind poorly to I-E(d). These results are consistent with a growing number of reports that show that high affinity binding to class II is required for autoantigenic stimulation. Despite encephalitogenicity of 59-76-reactive T cells, active immunization of BALB/c mice with peptide 59-76 in adjuvant failed to induce either clinical or histologic signs of EAE. The implications of these findings for mechanisms of genetically determined EAE resistance are discussed.