Secondary injury in the spinal cord, which results in axonal degeneration, scar and cavity formation and cell death, occurs around the site of the initial trauma and is a primary cause for the lack of axonal regeneration observed after spinal cord injury (SCI). The immune response after SCI is under investigation as a potential mediator of secondary injury. Treatment of SCI with 810 nm light su...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is thought to be an autoimmune disease in which inflammatory demyelination is triggered by T lymphocytes and followed by axonal degeneration. Accumulating evidence suggests that axonal pathology may be a principal early step in the pathophysiology of MS. Axonal degeneration has been observed in normal-appearing white matter from patients with MS. Cortical lesions undergo...

*Rummler, LS; *Palispis, WA; *Truong, LN; *Chao, T; *Rowshan, K; +*Gupta, RG +*University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA [email protected] INTRODUCTION: Chronic nerve compression (CNC) injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, are common orthopaedic conditions. Until recently, little has been known about the cellular and molecular changes after CNC injury. Acute nerve injuries, like axotomy and...

Neurofilament light (NFL) is an emerging marker of axonal degeneration. This study investigated the relationship between white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) and plasma NFL in a large elderly cohort with, without, cognitive impairment. We used Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative included 163 controls, 103 participants with significant memory concern, 279 early mild impairment (EMCI), 15...

Abnormal myelination underlies the pathology of white matter diseases such as preterm injury and multiple sclerosis. Osteopontin (OPN) has been suggested to play a role in myelination. Murine OPN mRNA is translated into secreted isoform (sOPN) or an intracellular (iOPN). Whether there isoform-specific involvement unknown. Here we generated mouse models that either lacked both isoforms all cells...

Wallerian degeneration of the CNS is accompanied by axonal dystrophy or swelling. To understand the mechanisms by which swellings arise, we studied their spatiotemporal dynamics, ultrastructure, composition, and the conditions that affect their formation in vivo and ex vivo. In contrast to peripheral nerve axons, lesioned optic nerve (ON) axons in vivo developed focal swellings asynchronously w...

NAD+ depletion is a common phenomenon in neurodegenerative pathologies. Excitotoxicity occurs in multiple neurologic disorders and NAD+ was shown to prevent neuronal degeneration in this process through mechanisms that remained to be determined. The activity of nicotinamide riboside (NR) in neuroprotective models and the recent description of extracellular conversion of NAD+ to NR prompted us t...

Mutations in Kinesin proteins (Kifs) are linked to various neurological diseases, but the specific and redundant functions of the vertebrate Kifs are incompletely understood. For example, Kif5A, but not other Kinesin-1 heavy-chain family members, is implicated in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) and Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), but the mechanism of its involvement in the progressive ax...

Axon degeneration occurs frequently in neurodegenerative diseases and peripheral neuropathies. Important insight into the mechanisms of axon degeneration arose from findings that the degeneration of transected axons is delayed in Wallerian degeneration slow (Wlds) mice with the overexpression of a fusion protein with the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) synthetic enzyme, nicotinamide mon...

Median nerve entrapment in the palm to wrist segment is known as carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Electromyography is the best evaluation test to confirm the disease, as it shows a median reduced conduction velocity and/or conduction block; however, the usual CTS electrodiagnostic tests do not separate segmental demyelination alone from segmental demyelination plus secondary axonal degeneration. W...