Klein showed that the cells destined to become oligodendrocytes and repair myelin damage, known as neural precursor cells, have high levels of the CXCR4. The cells come up to the corpus callosum from an area below the ventricles, a noncellular area filled with cerebrospinal fluid.

When scientists blocked CXCR4 from becoming activated or reduced cells' ability to make it, the mice were unable to restore myelin. Neural precursor cells stayed in the ventricle and grew in number but did not move to the corpus callosum to begin repairs.

"Apparently the neural precursor cells have to stop proliferating before they can migrate, and CXCR4 plays a role in this change," Klein says. "CXCR4 also seems to be essential to the cells' ability to develop into mature oligodendrocytes and form myelin."

Klein plans to see if she can restore myelin repair in genetically engineered mouse models of MS with a genetically altered lentivirus that increases levels of an inflammatory factor that activates CXCR4. She also will work with Washington University colleagues to study the new model with advanced imaging techniques in an attempt to further clarify the relationship between loss of nerve cell branches and myelin damage in MS.

"We do not yet know if this myelin repair pathway is somehow damaged or impaired in MS patients," Klein says. "But I like the idea of turning on something that the brain already knows how to make by itself, allowing it to heal itself with its own molecules."

Source: Washington University School of Medicine