Axon damage and repair in multiple sclerosis.

It is well known that within long-standing multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions there is axonal loss but whether it is an early or late event has been more difficult to establish. The use of immunocytochemical methods that reveal axonal end-bulbs is a valuable approach to investigating acute axonal injur...

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Main Authors: Perry, V, Anthony, D
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 1999
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author Perry, V
Anthony, D
author_facet Perry, V
Anthony, D
author_sort Perry, V
collection OXFORD
description It is well known that within long-standing multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions there is axonal loss but whether it is an early or late event has been more difficult to establish. The use of immunocytochemical methods that reveal axonal end-bulbs is a valuable approach to investigating acute axonal injury in human pathological material. The application of these techniques to multiple sclerosis tissue reveals evidence of axonal injury in acute lesions; the distribution of the end-bulbs in acute and active-chronic lesions is associated with regions of maximal density of infiltrating macrophages. Axon injury within the MS lesion will result in both Wallerian degeneration of the axon and also retrograde degeneration of the cell body. The functional consequences of the axon injury will depend upon numbers of axons injured and the topographical organization of the fibres coursing through the lesion. The molecular mechanisms by which the recruited leucocytes damage or transect the axons are not known. However, investigations in the Wld mutant mouse with very slow Wallerian degeneration demonstrate that axon degeneration is not simply a passive disintegration of the axon but has clear parallels with the active processes of programmed cell death. The presence of early axon injury and the consequences of an ever increasing load of neuronal damage has important implications not only for when therapy should be initiated in MS but also the therapeutic target.
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spelling oxford-uuid:de3aa49a-0001-4120-b103-d58c87a390082022-03-27T09:30:44ZAxon damage and repair in multiple sclerosis.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:de3aa49a-0001-4120-b103-d58c87a39008EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford1999Perry, VAnthony, DIt is well known that within long-standing multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions there is axonal loss but whether it is an early or late event has been more difficult to establish. The use of immunocytochemical methods that reveal axonal end-bulbs is a valuable approach to investigating acute axonal injury in human pathological material. The application of these techniques to multiple sclerosis tissue reveals evidence of axonal injury in acute lesions; the distribution of the end-bulbs in acute and active-chronic lesions is associated with regions of maximal density of infiltrating macrophages. Axon injury within the MS lesion will result in both Wallerian degeneration of the axon and also retrograde degeneration of the cell body. The functional consequences of the axon injury will depend upon numbers of axons injured and the topographical organization of the fibres coursing through the lesion. The molecular mechanisms by which the recruited leucocytes damage or transect the axons are not known. However, investigations in the Wld mutant mouse with very slow Wallerian degeneration demonstrate that axon degeneration is not simply a passive disintegration of the axon but has clear parallels with the active processes of programmed cell death. The presence of early axon injury and the consequences of an ever increasing load of neuronal damage has important implications not only for when therapy should be initiated in MS but also the therapeutic target.
spellingShingle Perry, V
Anthony, D
Axon damage and repair in multiple sclerosis.
title Axon damage and repair in multiple sclerosis.
title_full Axon damage and repair in multiple sclerosis.
title_fullStr Axon damage and repair in multiple sclerosis.
title_full_unstemmed Axon damage and repair in multiple sclerosis.
title_short Axon damage and repair in multiple sclerosis.
title_sort axon damage and repair in multiple sclerosis
work_keys_str_mv AT perryv axondamageandrepairinmultiplesclerosis
AT anthonyd axondamageandrepairinmultiplesclerosis