Fig. 3

PEG ameliorated the severity of motor defects and delayed the time of reaching peak motor deficits. Comparison of behavioral assessment each day between EAE (saline-treated, n = 12) and EAE + PEG (EAE-treated with PEG, n = 11) groups. The graph represents the average score for each group of animals throughout the study. The upper inset demonstrates that administration of PEG significantly decreased the peak symptom severity in EAE mice (P < 0.05). The highest score of each animal was recorded and averaged within each group to quantify the mean score of severity to be used for the upper inset. As indicated, the average of the peak EAE score in EAE + PEG group (1.91 ± 0.4) is significantly lower than that in EAE group (3.33 ± 0.3, P < 0.05). The lower inset describes the average time of reaching peak symptom of motor deficits in both EAE and EAE + PEG groups. For both EAE and EAE-PEG group, the time of reaching peak symptom is defined as the time that the most severe symptom, or the highest EAE score (≥2) first appears for each animal. If an EAE score of 2 is never reached during the experimental duration (28 days), then 28 day is used as the time of reaching peak symptom. As shown, the average time of reaching the peak EAE score in EAE + PEG group (23.1 ± 1.6) is significantly longer than that in EAE group (18.7 ± 0.8, P < 0.05)