Immunoglobulins and Measles Antibodies in Optic Neuritis

Abstract

Patients with optic neuritis have been separated into two groups by the presence or absence of oligoclonal immunoglobulin G (IgG) (demonstrable by agar-gel electrophoresis) in the cerebrospinal fluid. Patients with oligoclonal IgG had mean serum concentration of measles-virus hemolysis-inhibiting antibodies about seven times higher, whereas no difference between the groups was seen in mean serum titers of hemagglutination-inhibiting and of nucleocapsid complement-fixing antibodies. Significantly reduced ratios of serum to cerebrospinal-fluid measles virus antibody were found in 12 of 21 patients with oligoclonal IgG but in only one of 20 without oligoclonal IgG, although either adenovirus hemagglutination enhancement or poliovirus neutralization-enhancement antibody ratios or both were normal. These findings indicate the occurrence of a local measles-virus antibody response within the central nervous system in some patients with optic neuritis and oligoclonal IgG in cerebrospinal fluid. The immunoglobulin abnormalities found in the spinal fluid in these patients are similar to those reported in multiple sclerosis. (N Engl J Med 289:1103–1107, 1973)