With informed consent and ethics committee (NRES Committee South Central – Oxford B; REC Ref. No.: 10/H0605/5;v.1) approval, blood samples were obtained from healthy white European volunteers (without self-reported autoimmune disorders); their ages ranged from 20 – 61 years (mean = 33.38 years) and 70% were females. Relapsing-remitting MS patient serum samples were obtained in accordance with the Ruhr-University Bochum (Germany) ethics committee.
