GABAA receptor composition and function on CD4+ T cells during the development of EAE

FERNÁNDEZ HURST, N.; ZANETTI, S.R.; BOUZAT, C.B.; ROTH, G.

Mar del Plata

Congreso; LIX Reunión Científica Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clínica (SAIC) y LXII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Inmunología (SAI).; 2014

Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is an animal model that mimics many of the clinical and pathological features of the human disease, Multiple sclerosis. CD4+ T cells exert a critical role during the induction and development of the disease. In previous studies it was shown that T cells express GABAA receptors and in parallel in our laboratory was demonstrated that the treatment with Diazepam, an allosteric agonist of GABAA receptor, reduced the incidence and clinical signs of EAE. First of all, we evaluated the presence, composition and functionality of GABAA receptors on CD4+ T cells isolated from popliteal lymph nodes of controls and EAE animals. Also the possible non-neuronal cell plasticity phenomenon was investigated in immune cells comparing with brain tissue. The animals were sensitized with myelin in complete Freund?s adjuvant (CFA) to induce EAE or CFA alone as control group, and sacrificed during the acute state of the disease (13-14 days post-induction). The mononuclear cells (MNC) were isolated from the draining popliteal lymph nodes and the in vitro proliferation induced by anti-CD3 and in presence of GABAA agonists (GABA, Muscimol, Diazepam) was evaluated. GABAA agonists reduced the proliferation of CD4+ T cells (p