Many studies have analyzed myelin-reactivity of T cells in multiple sclerosis (MS); however, with conflicting results. In this study we compare methods to determine myelin reactivity of T cells and aim to delineate the cause of inconsistency in the literature. Challenging T cells with myelin antigens we found a significant increase in antigen-reactivity of T cells from patients with MS using an ELISpot-assay, in contrast to a CFSE-dilution assay. Comparing the two assays showed that the myelin-reactive T cells detected in the ELISpot-assay originated primarily from effector memory T cells in contrast to the myelin-reactive T cells of the CFSE-assay representing a population of both naïve, central memory and effector memory T cells. This diversity in T cell populations activated in the two assays likely contribute to the discrepancy found in the literature and encourages thorough considerations when choosing an assay to determine antigen-specificity of T cells in future studies.

许多研究分析了多发性硬化症 (MS) 中 T 细胞的髓鞘反应性；然而，结果相互矛盾。在这项研究中，我们比较了确定 T 细胞髓鞘反应性的方法，并旨在描述文献中不一致的原因。用髓鞘抗原挑战 T 细胞，我们发现使用 ELISpot 测定法与 CFSE 稀释测定法相比，MS 患者 T 细胞的抗原反应性显着增加。比较这两种检测表明，ELISpot 检测中检测到的髓鞘反应性 T 细胞主要来自效应记忆 T 细胞，而 CFSE 检测中检测到的髓鞘反应性 T 细胞则代表了一组幼稚、中枢记忆和效应细胞记忆T细胞。