Complement activation in multiple sclerosis plaques: an immunohistochemical analysis

Ingram, Gillian, Loveless, Sam ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5124-4115, Howell, Owain W., Hakobyan, Svetlana, Dancey, Bethan, Harris, Claire L., Robertson, Neil P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5409-4909, Neal, James W. and Morgan, B. Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4075-7676 2014. Complement activation in multiple sclerosis plaques: an immunohistochemical analysis. Acta Neuropathologica Communications 2 , 53. 10.1186/2051-5960-2-53

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Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Inflammation and complement activation are firmly implicated in the pathology of multiple sclerosis; however, the extent and nature of their involvement in specific pathological processes such as axonal damage, myelin loss and disease progression remains uncertain. This study aims to bring clarity to these questions. RESULTS: We describe a detailed immunohistochemical study to localise a strategically selected set of complement proteins, activation products and regulators in brain and spinal cord tissue of 17 patients with progressive multiple sclerosis and 16 control donors, including 9 with central nervous system disease. Active, chronic active and chronic inactive multiple sclerosis plaques (35 in total) and non-plaque areas were examined.Multiple sclerosis plaques were consistently positive for complement proteins (C3, factor B, C1q), activation products (C3b, iC3b, C4d, terminal complement complex) and regulators (factor H, C1-inhibitor, clusterin), suggesting continuing local complement synthesis, activation and regulation despite the absence of other evidence of ongoing inflammation. Complement staining was most apparent in plaque and peri-plaque but also present in normal appearing white matter and cortical areas to a greater extent than in control tissue. C1q staining was present in all plaques suggesting a dominant role for the classical pathway. Cellular staining for complement components was largely restricted to reactive astrocytes, often adjacent to clusters of microglia in close apposition to complement opsonised myelin and damaged axons. CONCLUSIONS: The findings demonstrate the ubiquity of complement involvement in multiple sclerosis, suggest a pathogenic role for complement contributing to cell, axon and myelin damage and make the case for targeting complement for multiple sclerosis monitoring and therapy.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics (CNGG) Systems Immunity Research Institute (SIURI)
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General) R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Additional Information:	This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Publisher:	BioMed Central
ISSN:	2051-5960
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	2 May 2014
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 07:49
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/74905

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