Prolactin in combination with interferon-β reduces disease severity in an animal model of multiple sclerosis

• Published in: Journal of neuroinflammation 2015-03, Vol.12 (1), p.55-55, Article 55
• Main Authors: Zhornitsky, Simon, Johnson, Trina A, Metz, Luanne M, Weiss, Samuel, Yong, V Wee
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Antigen-Presenting Cells - drug effects; Cell Proliferation - drug effects; Disease Models, Animal; Drug Therapy, Combination; Female; Immunologic Factors - therapeutic use; Interferon-beta - therapeutic use; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Multiple Sclerosis - chemically induced; Multiple Sclerosis - drug therapy; Multiple Sclerosis - pathology; Myelin-Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein - toxicity; Peptide Fragments - toxicity; Prolactin - therapeutic use; Spinal Cord - pathology; Time Factors
• ISSN: 1742-2094; 1742-2094
• DOI: 10.1186/s12974-015-0278-8

Previous work has demonstrated that the hormone prolactin promotes oligodendrocyte precursor proliferation and remyelination following lysolecithin-induced demyelination of the mouse spinal cord. Prolactin, however, can elicit pro-inflammatory responses, and its use in the prototypical demyelinating and inflammatory condition, multiple sclerosis (MS), should thus be approached cautiously. Here, we sought to determine whether recombinant prolactin could alter the course of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an inflammatory animal model of MS. Consistent with previous literature, we found that prolactin activated leukocytes in vitro. Daily treatment with prolactin from around the time of onset of clinical signs, for 9 (days 9 to 17) or 25 (days 9 to 33) days did not increase clinical or histological signs of EAE over that of vehicle-treated mice. Instead, the combination of prolactin and a suboptimal dose of recombinant murine interferon-β resulted in (days 9 to 17 group) or trended towards (days 9 to 33 group), a greater amelioration of clinical signs of EAE, compared to either treatment alone or to vehicle controls. Histological analyses corroborated the clinical EAE data. These results suggest that prolactin may be beneficial when administered in combination with interferon-β in MS.