Acetylcholine regulates the development of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis via the CD4+ cells proliferation and differentiation

Abstract

Purpose of the study: Multiple sclerosis is a CD4⁺ T cell mediated autoimmune disease characterized by inflammatory demyelination in the central nervous system. Acetylcholine (ACh) has been reported to be released by T lymphocytes and plays as an inflammation and immune regulator through the participation of T cells. However, both attenuated and aggravated effects of ACh in inflammation were found. The aim of this study is to further investigate the role of ACh in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE).

Materials and methods: The left cervical vagotomy was performed to inhibit ACh release with the sham-operation as control. ACh in cerebral cortex and splenocytes culture supernatants of EAE mice were determined. Interleukin-6, interferon-γ, interleukin-4 and interleukin-17A in brain and splenocytes culture supernatants were evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The proportion of CD4⁺ T cells and subsets were assessed by flow cytometry.

Results: Compared with the sham-operation group, improved clinical and pathological parameters as well as decreased interleukin-6, interferon-γ, interleukin-4 and interleukin-17A were found in EAE mice with vagotomy suppressing the ACh. Marked reductions of CD4⁺ and CD4⁺ChAT⁺ cells, as well as significant decrease in Th1 with a bias to Th2 in Th1/Th2 balance and increased ChAT⁺Th2 proportion in the spleen were also observed in vagotomized mice.

Conclusions: These findings emphasize that inhibiting ACh release by vagotomy can ameliorate the exacerbation of EAE through suppressing CD4⁺ T cells proliferation and regulating the differentiation of Th1, Th2 and Th17.

Keywords:

• Acetylcholine
• experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis
• vagotomy
• CD4+ T cells
• inflammatory cytokines

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF)-the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) joint program (grant number 813111290); and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province in China (grant number 2014A030313172). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.