Natural And Experimental Demyelination

Question 1

Causes of natural demyelination

Answer 1

• Inflammation and inflammatory diseases (previous lecture)
• Infection e.g. JC virus causing Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML)
• Hypoxic-ischaemic injury (e.g. stroke)
• Traumatic tissue damage (e.g. spinal cord injury)
• Metabolic causes (e.g. Central pontine myelinolysis)
• Drug – e.g. anecdotal anti-TNF-induced demyelination
• Genetic diseases (e.g. adrenoleukodystrophies)

Question 2

How can we study demyelination experimentally

Answer 2

In vivo: Animal models
• Ex vivo: Cells or tissue outside the body
• In vitro: Cells or tissue in dishes

Question 3

Describe rodent models of CNS demyelination

Answer 3

• Autoimmune
– Spontaneous (TCR, BCR Tg)
– Actively immunised
– Adoptively transferred
• Toxin induced
– Cuprizone
– Lysolecithin
– Ethidium bromide
• Virally induced
– Theiler’s Murine Encephalomyelitis Virus (TMEV)
– Mouse Hepatitis Virus (MHV)
– Semliki Forest Virus (SFV)

Question 4

Type of what can determine whether a drug works

Answer 4

Type of T cell causing EAE or MS

Question 5

Different types of ….. can cause EAE

Answer 5

CD4+T cells