Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease involving immunological mechanisms that lead to demyelination of the central nervous system. Two papers in June
Ralf Linker and colleagues from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Austria, worked with CNTF-deficient and wild-type mice and found that CNTF is a major protective factor in demyelinating CNS disease. The vacuolar dystrophy of myelin and axonal damage was more severe and recovery was poor in CNTF-deficient mice. These effects could be prevented by treatment with an antiserum against tumor necrosis factor-α, suggesting that endogenous CNTF may counterbalance TNF-α (
In the second paper, Helmut Butzkueven and colleagues at the University of Melbourne, Australia, observed that administration of LIF could reverse the loss of oligodendrocytes normally seen in the murine ...
