Old Cells Repair Damage in Brains of Those with Multiple Sclerosis

Summary: Researchers discovered oligodendrocyte neurogenesis is limited in the brains of patients with Multiple Sclerosis. However, oligodendrocytes that survive the autoimmune attack associated with MS may be able to form new myelin.

Source: Karolinska Institute.

A new study shows that there is a very limited regeneration of cells in the brain of patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). These findings underline the importance of treating MS at an early stage of the disease progression, when the affected cells can repair the damage as they are not replaced by new ones. The results are published in the journal Nature by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University in Sweden.

Nerve cells in the brain communicate with one another through nerve fibres that form complex networks. Many nerve fibres are insulated by a casing of myelin, which contributes to the high-speed transmission of nerve impulses. Myelin is not formed by the nerve cells but by another type of cells called oligodendrocytes.

MS is a disease caused by the body’s immune system attacking the myelin and oligodendrocytes. This leads to deteriorated transmission of signals in the nerve fibres and can entail nerve cell death, a combination that causes serious neurological impairments and in severe cases the patient’s death.

The disease progression in MS usually fluctuates between periods of deterioration and periods of remission. Studies in mice have shown that damaged myelin can be reformed, and that this requires generation of new oligodendrocytes that make the myelin. It has been assumed that periods of remission in MS patients are caused by newly formed oligodendrocytes replacing the lost myelin.

But in this study, a research group has been able to show that there is no regeneration of oligodendrocytes in MS patients in those areas where the myelin seems to have been reformed. Instead, it appears as if old oligodendrocytes that have survived the attack from the immune defence are able to form new myelin.

“We were highly surprised that humans proved to be so different from the animals that have been studied. In humans, there is very limited regeneration of oligodendrocytes, but they seem to have a greater capacity to contribute to repair,” says Jonas Frisén, Professor at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Karolinska Institutet, who led the study.

These new findings indicate the importance of treating MS aggressively at an early stage of the disease progression, in order to prevent the loss of oligodendrocytes.

ms diagram
MS is a disease caused by the body’s immune system attacking the myelin and oligodendrocytes. This leads to deteriorated transmission of signals in the nerve fibres and can entail nerve cell death, a combination that causes serious neurological impairments and in severe cases the patient’s death. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.

“Since few oligodendrocytes are formed, it is important to save the ones you have as they can repair the damage caused by the disease,” says Jonas Frisén.

To determine the age of the oligodendrocytes in the MS patients, the researchers measured the amount of the isotope carbon-14 from nuclear detonations during the cold war, which was stored in the cells’ genome, i.e. the DNA. Since the detonations ceased, there has been a gradual decrease of carbon-14, which acts as a type of date mark for when the cells were formed. This method of determining the age of a cell was developed by Jonas Frisén’s team in the early 2000s.

Another paper is published simultaneously in Nature, from Associate Professor Gonçalo Castelo-Branco’s group also at Karolinska Institutet, arriving at overlapping conclusions, with a different methodology,

About this neuroscience research article

Funding: The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Cancer Society, the Tobias Foundation, the Strategic Research Foundation (SSF), the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the European Research Council (ERC) and the Torsten Söderberg Foundation.

Source: Karolinska InstitutePublisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Abstract for “Dynamics of oligodendrocyte generation in multiple sclerosis” by Maggie S. Y. Yeung, Mehdi Djelloul, Embla Steiner, Samuel Bernard, Mehran Salehpour, Göran Possnert, Lou Brundin & Jonas Frisén in Nature. Published January 23 2019.
doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0842-3

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Karolinska Institute”Old Cells Repair Damage in Brains of Those with Multiple Sclerosis.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 223 January 2019.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/ms-old-cells-10625/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Karolinska Institute(2019, January 223). Old Cells Repair Damage in Brains of Those with Multiple Sclerosis. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved January 223, 2019 from https://neurosciencenews.com/ms-old-cells-10625/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Karolinska Institute”Old Cells Repair Damage in Brains of Those with Multiple Sclerosis.” https://neurosciencenews.com/ms-old-cells-10625/ (accessed January 223, 2019).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

Dynamics of oligodendrocyte generation in multiple sclerosish

Oligodendrocytes wrap nerve fibres in the central nervous system with layers of specialized cell membrane to form myelin sheaths. Myelin is destroyed by the immune system in multiple sclerosis, but myelin is thought to regenerate and neurological function can be recovered. In animal models of demyelinating disease, myelin is regenerated by newly generated oligodendrocytes, and remaining mature oligodendrocytes do not seem to contribute to this process. Given the major differences in the dynamics of oligodendrocyte generation and adaptive myelination between rodents and humans, it is not clear how well experimental animal models reflect the situation in multiple sclerosis. Here, by measuring the integration of 14C derived from nuclear testing in genomic DNA, we assess the dynamics of oligodendrocyte generation in patients with multiple sclerosis. The generation of new oligodendrocytes was increased several-fold in normal-appearing white matter in a subset of individuals with very aggressive multiple sclerosis, but not in most subjects with the disease, demonstrating an inherent potential to substantially increase oligodendrocyte generation that fails in most patients. Oligodendrocytes in shadow plaques—thinly myelinated lesions that are thought to represent remyelinated areas—were old in patients with multiple sclerosis. The absence of new oligodendrocytes in shadow plaques suggests that remyelination of lesions occurs transiently or not at all, or that myelin is regenerated by pre-existing, and not new, oligodendrocytes in multiple sclerosis. We report unexpected oligodendrocyte generation dynamics in multiple sclerosis, and this should guide the use of current, and the development of new, therapies.

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