Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic CNS disease which produces disability in 0.1% of Caucasian population. No consistently effective therapy is currently available. While immunosuppressive cytokines offer great promise as therapy for MS, the use of these substances is limited because of unacceptable side- effects, inability to get the agents across the blood-brain barrier, or """"""""undesirable effects of the (EAE) is the standard animal model of MS"""""""". The investigators propose to use the proprietary encapsulated cell technology of CytoTherapeutics, Inc., to treat rat EAE with the cytokine IL-10. IL-10 has the ability to inhibit EAE, but is most probably not optimal for chronic systemic therapy. Continuous intrathecal delivery of IL-10 should be effective in inhibiting EAE, and should also obviate the problems associated with systemically administered cytokines. The investigator will also examine the effects of long-term IL-10 production in the immune status and function of the CNS. If successful, the first phase of this project will demonstrate the therapeutic efficacy of, and host response to, chronic intrathecal suppression of autoimmune inflammation in the CNS by encapsulated cells secreting recombinant cytokines and will lead to development of an important new medical therapy by US Employers.
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