Early EPO treatment sharply reduced total numbers of inflammatory cells and limited expansion of the dendritic cell population in DILNs during the EAE induction phase.

<p>C57 mice received EPO or PBS sham treatment starting on the day of MOG-immunization for 6 days and lymph nodes were obtained on day 7. a) Significantly enlarged inguinal lymph nodes were observed in control sham treated MOG-EAE mice (middle), whereas much smaller nodes were found in EPO treated EAE mice (right) similar in size to nodes from normal animals (left). b) Total MNCs were quantified from single cell suspensions of DILNs after lysis of RBCs. Greatly increased inflammatory mononuclear cell numbers were observed in sham treated EAE lymph nodes compared to DILNs from EPO treated EAE mice or normal mice. c) Cells were reacted with fluorophore labeled mAbs specific for surface markers (MHC class II and CD11c) and analyzed by flow cytometry. Note that the large expansion in dendritic cell population found in sham treated EAE mice was dramatically suppressed by EPO therapy. Data represents mean±SEM for 6 individual mice. **, p<0.0001.