Myelin Antigens and Antimyelin Antibodies

The purpose of this review is to provide an historical perspective on studies of serum derived antimyelin antibodies. Antimyelin antibodies can be defined by their action on myelinating organotypic nervous system tissue cultures and include demyelinating antibodies, which have destructive effects on myelin when applied to already myelinated cultures, and myelination inhibiting antibodies, which prevent myelin formation when applied to cultures prior to myelination. Myelin antigens were evaluated in animal studies for their ability to induce experimental allergic encephalomyelitis, an inflammatory demyelinating disease, and correlated with the induction of antimyelin antibodies. As tissue culture demyelinating activity was also found in sera from some patients with multiple sclerosis, a human inflammatory demyelinating disease, studies were undertaken to characterize the nature of the demyelinating factors.