Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the CNS characterized by inflammation and neurodegeneration. Animal models that enable the study of remyelination in the context of ongoing inflammation are greatly needed for the development of novel therapies that target the pathological inhibitory cues inherent to the MS plaque microenvironment. We report the development of an innovative ...

Chronic central nervous system demyelinating diseases result in long-term disability because of limited remyelination capacity and cumulative damage to axons. Corpus callosum demyelination in mice fed cuprizone provides a reproducible model of chronic demyelination in which the demyelinating agent can be removed to test modifications that promote recovery and to develop noninvasive neuroimaging...

Microglia contribute to development, homeostasis, and immunity of the CNS. Like other tissue-resident macrophage populations, microglia express the surface receptor triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2), which binds polyanions, such as dextran sulphate and bacterial LPS, and activates downstream signaling cascades through the adapter DAP12. Individuals homozygous for inactiva...

Microglia represent rational but challenging targets for improving white matter integrity because of their dualistic protective and toxic roles. The present study examines the effect of Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) on microglial responses to myelin pathology in primary cultures and in the cuprizone mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS), a devastating demyelination disease. D...

Remyelination is in the center of new therapies for the treatment of multiple sclerosis to resolve and improve disease symptoms and protect axons from further damage. Although remyelination is considered beneficial in the long term, it is not known, whether this is also the case early in lesion formation. Additionally, the precise timing of acute axonal damage and remyelination has not been ass...

Schizophrenia is a serious psychiatric illness with an unclear cause. One theory is that demyelination of white matter is one of the main pathological factors involved in the development of schizophrenia. The current study evaluated the protective effects of Areca catechu nut extract (ANE) on a cuprizone-induced demyelination mouse model. Two doses of ANE (1% and 2%) were administered orally in...

For the treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis there are no regenerative approaches to enhance remyelination. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been proposed to exert such regenerative functions. Intravenous administration of human MSC reduced the clinical severity of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model mimicking some aspects of multiple sclerosis. However, i...