Unlike neonatal axons, mammalian adult axons do not regenerate after injury. Likewise, myelin, a major factor in preventing regeneration in the adult, inhibits regeneration from older but not younger neurons. Identification of the molecular events responsible for this developmental loss of regenerative capacity is believed key to devising strategies to encourage regeneration in adults after inj...

BACKGROUND The proposed predictive value of serum anti-myelin antibodies for the development of multiple sclerosis after a first clinically isolated syndrome was recently challenged. OBJECTIVE To investigate myelin autoantibodies before first disease manifestation using different detection methods. METHODS Patients with multiple sclerosis who had donated blood at a time prior to development...

Myelin is a multilayered glial cell membrane that forms segmented sheaths around large-caliber axons of both the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS). Myelin covering insures rapid and efficient transmission of nerve impulses. Direct visual assessment of local changes of myelin content in vivo could greatly facilitate diagnosis and therapeutic treatments of myelin-re...

Trafficking of myelin-reactive CD4(+) T-cells across the brain endothelium, an essential step in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS), is suggested to be an antigen-specific process, yet which cells provide this signal is unknown. Here we provide direct evidence that under inflammatory conditions, brain endothelial cells (BECs) stimulate the migration of myelin-reactive CD4(+) T-cells by...

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, inflammatory, demyelinating disease of the central nervous system in which macrophages and microglia play a central role. Foamy macrophages and microglia, containing degenerated myelin, are abundantly found in active multiple sclerosis lesions. Recent studies have described an altered macrophage phenotype after myelin internalization. However, it is unclear by w...

Ultrastructural studies have shown that during early stages of Schwann cell myelination mesaxon membranes are converted to compact myelin lamellae. The distinct changes that occur in the spacing of these Schwann cell membranes are likely to be mediated by the redistribution of (a) the myelin-associated glycoprotein, a major structural protein of mesaxon membranes; and (b) P0 protein, the major ...

Degenerating myelin inhibits axon regeneration and is rapidly cleared after peripheral (PNS) but not central nervous system (CNS) injury. To better understand mechanisms underlying rapid PNS myelin clearance, we tested the potential role of the humoral immune system. Here, we show that endogenous antibodies are required for rapid and robust PNS myelin clearance and axon regeneration. B-cell kno...

Myelin water imaging (MWI) promises to be invaluable in understanding neurological diseases like MS. However, a limitation of MWI is signal to noise ratio. Recently, a number of investigators have performed MWI at field strengths higher than 1.5 T. Our goal was to determine if myelin water imaging at increased SNR, arising from the use of a small bore 7 T MR system with optimized coil geometry,...

change in transmitting time of impulses along axons is traditionally attributed to two parameters: the myelin formation and the diameter of neurite, both rising during the postnatal development. in the previous study, we showed that conduction velocity of the fibers projecting from the thalamus to the layer iv of the somatosensory (barrel) cortex increases as a function of age. however, the con...

Myelin, a multilamellar membrane surrounding nerve fibers of both the central and peripheral nervous systems, is derived from the plasma membrane of the oligodendrocyte (CNS) and Schwann cell (PNS). The chemical composition of myelin differs markedly from that of its progenitor membrane. In addition, the chemical composition of CNS myelin differs from that of PNS myelin. This review will be con...