C57Bl/6 mice received weekly i.v. injections with 300 ng PTx in 200 µl of PBS or PBS alone.

After six months, mice were immunized with MOG p35-55 in CFA and injected i.v. with 300 ng PTx in PBS immediately following the immunization and 48 h later. 50 days after EAE induction, isolated splenocytes from 4 (control-treated group) and 6 (PTx-treated group) representative mice were cultured with anti-CD3 (0,5 µg/ml) and anti-CD28 (1 µg/ml) (a–d), MOG p35-55 (e–h) or PTx (i–l) and evaluated for proliferation (a, e, i), secretion of IFN-γ (b, f, j), TNF (c, g, k) and IL-10 (d, h, l) (* indicates p<0.05, ** p<0.001, *** p<0.0001; representative for two separate experiments).