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Inflammatory demyelinating diseases (IDDs), sometimes called Idiopathic (IIDDs) due to the unknown etiology of some of them, are a heterogenous group of demyelinating diseases - conditions that cause damage to myelin, the protective sheath of nerve fibers - that occur against the background of an acute or chronic inflammatory process.
Myelin's best known function is to increase the rate at which information, encoded as electrical charges, passes along the axon's length. Myelin achieves this by eliciting saltatory conduction. [1] Saltatory conduction refers to the fact that electrical impulses 'jump' along the axon, over long myelin sheaths, from one node of Ranvier to the next.
The oligodendrocytes that originally formed a myelin sheath cannot completely rebuild a destroyed myelin sheath. However, the central nervous system can recruit oligodendrocyte stem cells capable of proliferation and migration and differentiation into mature myelinating oligodendrocytes. The newly formed myelin sheaths are thinner and often not ...
The T cells recognize myelin as foreign and attack it, explaining why these cells are also called "autoreactive lymphocytes". Demyelination, further inflammation and axonal transection are the result. The attack of myelin starts inflammatory processes, which triggers other immune cells and the release of soluble factors like cytokines and ...
Myelin sheath of a healthy neuron in the central nervous system. Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the CNS in which activated immune cells invade the central nervous system and cause inflammation, neurodegeneration, and tissue damage. The underlying cause is currently unknown.
Increased myelin density in humans as a result of a prolonged myelination may, therefore, structure risk for myelin degeneration and dysfunction. Evolutionary considerations for the role of prolonged cortical myelination as a risk factor for demyelinating disease are particularly pertinent given that genetics and autoimmune deficiency ...
To be specific, MS involves the loss of oligodendrocytes, the cells responsible for creating and maintaining a fatty layer—known as the myelin sheath—which helps the neurons carry electrical signals (action potentials). [1] This results in a thinning or complete loss of myelin, and as the disease advances, the breakdown of the axons of
Myelitis damages the myelin sheath that wraps the axon. MRI image of transverse myelitis patient's spinal cord. Myelitis lesions usually occur in a narrow region but can be spread and affect many areas. Acute flaccid myelitis: a polio-like syndrome that causes muscle weakness and paralysis.