Visual imaging as a predictor of neurodegeneration in experimental autoimmune demyelination and multiple sclerosis.

ABSTRACT: Thalamic volume is associated with clinical disability in multiple sclerosis (MS) and is vulnerable to secondary neurodegeneration due to its extensive connectivity throughout the central nervous system (CNS). Using a model of autoimmune demyelination that exhibits CNS-infiltrating immune cells in both spinal cord white matter and optic nerve, we sought to evaluate neurodegenerative changes due to lesions affecting the spino- and retino-thalamic pathways. We found comparable axonal loss in spinal cord white matter and optic nerve during the acute phase of disease consistent with synaptic loss, but not neuronal cell body loss in the thalamic nuclei that receive input from these discrete pathways. Loss of spinal cord neurons or retinal ganglion cells retrograde to their respective axons was

SUBMITTER: Mey GM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9199245 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature