OBSERVATIONS ON ATTEMPTS TO PRODUCE ACUTE DISSEMINATED ENCEPHALOMYELITIS IN MONKEYS

TLDR

The relationship between the injections and nervous system disease remains unclear. Vaccine virus alone or combined with brain extracts/emulsions did not consistently induce acute disseminated encephalomyelitis in monkeys, with only sporadic inflammatory demyelination observed after repeated intramuscular injections.

Abstract

No evidence was found to support the idea that vaccine virus placed in the cisterna magna is capable of producing an acute disseminated encephalomyelitis with perivascular demyelination either in normal or in partially immune monkeys. A testicular extract (Reynals' factor) did not induce vaccine virus to cause an acute disseminated encephalomyelitis in monkeys. Repeated intramuscular injections of brain extracts and brain emulsions into eight monkeys were followed in two instances by an inflammatory reaction, accompanied by demyelination, in the central nervous system. The exact relation of the injections to the disease of the nervous system is not clear. The combined action of vaccine virus and an emulsion of fresh rabbit brain did not lead to the production of an acute disseminated encephalomyelitis in monkeys that had received repeated intramuscular injections of emulsions and alcohol-ether extracts of normal rabbit brains.