Gregory Harrison Turner1, Junwei Hao2,
Ruolan Liu2, Wenhua Piao2, Timothy L. Vollmer3,
Rong Xiang4, Antonio La Cava5, Denise I. Campagnolo2,
Luc Van Kaer6, Fu-Dong Shi2
1Keller Center for Imaging Innovation,
Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ, United States; 2Neurology,
Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ, United States; 3Neurology,
University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, United States; 4Medicine,
Nankai University, Tianjin, China; 5Medicine, University of
California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 6Microbiology
and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN,
United States
Natural
killer (NK) cells of the innate immune system can profoundly impact the
development of adaptive immune responses against foreign invaders, as well as
self-antigens. In this study a
combination of in vivo MRI and bioluminescence imaging was used to
investigate effects of systemic depletion of NK cells on lesion development
in an experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mouse model of multiple
sclerosis. The results of this study
suggest organ-specific activity of NK cells on the magnitude of CNS
inflammation.