Fig. 1

E2 significantly protects WT and IL-10 KO mice from developing EAE. Pretreating mice for 7 days prior to EAE induction with E2 significantly protected WT and IL-10 KO mice from developing severe EAE (*p < 0.05 WT sham vs WT E2 and ^#p < 0.05 IL-10 KO sham vs IL-10 KO E2; a). The incidence, disease onset, and peak disease scores were all lower in the E2-treated WT (n = 8) and IL-10 KO (n = 8) mice compared to sham-treated WT (n = 6) and IL-10 KO (n = 8) mice, respectively (*p < 0.05 WT sham vs WT E2 and ^#p < 0.05 IL-10 KO sham vs IL-10 KO E2; b). Clinical disease scores were significantly lower starting at day 12 post-immunization in WT mice and day 13 post-immunization in IL-10 KO mice, remaining significantly lower through day 21 post-immunization (p < 0.05). The cumulative disease index (CDI) was also significantly lower in E2-treated mice compared to the sham-treated mice (WT 0 vs 33.79 ± 4.59; p < 0.001 and IL-10 KO 1.69 ± 1.69 vs 42.53 ± 2.87; p > 0.001; c). Data are represented as mean ± SEM