Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS) in young adults that has serious negative socio-economic effects. In addition to symptoms caused by CNS pathology, the majority of MS patients frequently exhibit gastrointestinal dysfunction, which was previously either explained by the presence of spinal cord lesions or not directly linked to the autoimmune etiology of the disease. Here, we studied the enteric nervous system (ENS) in a B cell- and antibody-dependent mouse model of MS by immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy at different stages of the disease. ENS degeneration was evident prior to the development of CNS lesions and the onset of neurological deficits in mice. The pathology was antibody mediated and caused a significant decrease in gastrointestinal motility, which was associated with ENS gliosis and neuronal loss. We identified autoantibodies against four potential target antigens derived from enteric glia and/or neurons by immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry. Antibodies against three of the target antigens were also present in the plasma of MS patients as confirmed by ELISA. The analysis of human colon resectates provided evidence of gliosis and ENS degeneration in MS patients compared to non-MS controls. For the first time, this study establishes a pathomechanistic link between the well-established autoimmune attack on the CNS and ENS pathology in MS, which might provide a paradigm shift in our current understanding of the immunopathogenesis of the disease with broad diagnostic and therapeutic implications.
The opening line of the abstract gives a different twist usual science rag, it says that MS makes you poor. It gets weirder from there.
First we had the microbiota and the nervous system.
But you are going to get support that there are gut changes in MS
Moser AM, et al. Mucosal biopsy shows immunologic changes of the colon in patients with early MS. Neurology, N2.
Objective: To investigate immune cells of the colonic mucosa and faecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in treatment-naive patients with a clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) or early relapsing MS.
Methods: In this cross-sectional proof-of-concept study, we obtained mucosal specimens during ileocolonoscopy from 15 untreated patients with CIS/MS and 10 controls. Mucosal immune cells were analyzed by FACS, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry measurements of stool samples served to determine SCFA.
Results: The number of total dendritic cells (DCs), CD103+ tolerogenic DCs, and CD4+25+127–regulatory T cells (Tregs) was significantly reduced in the distal colon of patients with CIS/MS compared with controls, whereas we found no differences in the proximal colon. The patients’ faecal samples also showed a substantially lower content of SCFA and especially lower levels of butyrate and acetate.
Conclusions: Our findings indicate a disturbed homeostasis of colonic DCs and Tregs in patients with MS which could be associated with colonic SCFA depletion. Although not implying causality, these findings confirm parallel abnormalities of the gut in MS and warrant further research if modulation of the colonic SCFA profile or the colonic Treg pool can serve to modify the course of MS.
My gut is just fine. But not if I consume certain animal proteins – dairy and egg. I think such reactions to dietary proteins may say something about MS.
There seem to be more gut changes after MS, and perhaps not the other way round.
Although there are no more appendix (I had appendicitis at 16 years of age)…
What I realized is that after EM I have suffered more from constipation, regardless of what I eat, and I am I make use of probiotics or my gut improves a lot, practically normalizes.