To assess the expression pattern of basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) and one of its receptors (FGFR-l/flg) during autoimmune inflammation of the CNS, FGF-2, and FGFRl/flg peptide and mRNA levels were examined by immunocytochemistry, by in situ hybridisation and by Northern blot analysis in T cell-mediated EAE of the Lewis rat. In naive control animals as well as in animals injected with nonencephalitogenic, PPD-reactive T lymphocytes, FGF-2 immunoreactivity was low and confined to blood vessels and to a few spinal cord neurons. In rats injected with encephalitogenic, MBP-reactive T lymphocytes, however, FGF-2-immunoreactive cells were detected from day 4 after T cell transfer onward, i.e., from the onset of clinical symptoms.
The number of FGF-2 immunoreactive cells was highest between days 6 and 10 after T cell transfer. Increased FGF-2 peptide expression was paralleled by increased FGF-2 mRNA expression on macrophages/microglia in the spinal cord. By 21 days after T cell transfer, i.e. after complete recovery, FGF-2 peptide and mRNA expression had fully subsided. Based on morphological criteria and on double labeling with the macrophage/ microglia-binding lectin GSI-B, two cell types expressed FGF-2: 1) round macrophages within the core, and 2) activated microglia a t the edges of white and grey matter perivascular lesions. Paralleling the temporal and spatial expression pattern of FGF-2, FGFRl/flg immunoreactivity was induced on activated macrophages/microglia but also on reactive astrocytes bordering perivascular inflammatory lesions. In situ hybridisation analysis furthermore showed that macrophages/microglia expressed the FGFR-l/flg mRNA, and that receptor mRNA expression paralleled ligand mRNA expression. Macrophage/microglia-derived FGF-2 could serve two main functions in Em: 1) regulate microglial activation in an autocrine fashion, and 2) help to target astrocyte-derived insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) to potentially injured oligodendrocytes in demyelination.