The restoration of MS patients to full health will ultimately be a two step process. The first step being the development of an effective treatment or cure for MS and the second the application of therapeutic strategies designed to repair the existing damage to myelin. Research directed towards this second step, known as remyelination, will be the focus of this overview.
Myelinated axons can transmit nerve impulses up to ten times faster than unmyelinated axons.
Damage to the myelin in diseases such as MS leads to poor conduction of nerve impulses along axons causing the symptoms associated with this disease. Oligodendrocytes Myelin is synthesised by a specialised cell in the CNS called an oligodendrocyte. As discussed below, the ability to grow these progenitor cells in tissue culture has been an important recent advance. Remyelination Multiple areas of demyelination known as plaques constitute the major pathological feature of MS and cause the symptoms in this disease. Considerable evidence suggests that re- myelination of acute plaques occurs within a few weeks of demyelination, sometimes resulting in the complete disappearance of the plaque.