This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Division Following Experimental Demyelination in Adult Animals

Lynn S. Arenella, MS; Robert M. Herndon, MD

Arch Neurol. 1984;41(11):1162-1165.

Abstract
• Primary demyelination can be caused by injury to oligodendrocytes or to the myelin sheaths that these cells maintain. Although remyelination does take place in multiple sclerosis (MS), its possible role in the recovery from MS attacks has been inadequately considered, partly because of the belief that oligodendrocytes, once destroyed, cannot be replaced in the adult. The injection of lysolecithin into the mouse spinal cord causes primary demyelination, followed by the generation of new oligodendrocytes and remyelination. By using a pulse label of tritiated thymidine, this electron-microscopic autoradiographic study demonstrated a source of these regenerated oligodendrocytes. The replacement of oligodendrocytes can occur through the division of preexisting oligodendrocytes. This is the first demonstration that mature oligodendrocytes are capable of dividing in older animals. These results lend support to recent observations of an apparent proliferation of these cells in an active MS lesion. We believe that the ability of mature oligodendrocytes to divide and to remyelinate axons in the adult may play an important role in the recovery from MS attacks.

Author Affiliations
From the Center for Brain Research, University of Rochester (NY) School of Medicine.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication April 23, 1984.

Read in part before the 13th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Boston, Nov 9, 1983.

Reprint requests to Center for Brain Research, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Medical Center, Box 605, Rochester, NY 14642 (Ms Arenella).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Recovery of Myelin after Induction of Oligodendrocyte Cell Death in Postnatal Brain
Jalabi et al.
J. Neurosci. 2005;25:2885-2894.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Oligodendrocyte precursor cells in the demyelinated multiple sclerosis spinal cord
Wolswijk
Brain 2002;125:338-349.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Chronic Stage Multiple Sclerosis Lesions Contain a Relatively Quiescent Population of Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cells
Wolswijk
J. Neurosci. 1998;18:601-609.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Case 12-1997- A 50-Year-Old Woman with Multiple Sclerosis and an Enlarging Frontal-Lobe Mass
Paydarfar and de la Monte
NEJM 1997;336:1163-1171.
FULL TEXT  

DNA Synthesis in Alzheimer Type II Astrocytosis: The Question of Astrocytic Proliferation and Mitosis in Experimentally Induced Hepatic Encephalopathy
Brumback and Lapham
Arch Neurol 1989;46:845-848.
ABSTRACT  

Oligodendrocyte Development and the Natural History of Multiple Sclerosis: A New Hypothesis for the Pathogenesis of the Disease
Elias
Arch Neurol 1987;44:1294-1299.
ABSTRACT