Longitudinal positron emission tomography imaging for monitoring myelin repair in the spinal cord.

Objective: Novel therapeutic interventions aimed at myelin repair are now under development for neuroprotection as well as functional recovery of patients with multiple sclerosis. However, development of myelin repair therapy necessitates a noninvasive approach for measuring changes in myelin content in vivo in a quantitative fashion not yet possible using magnetic resonance imaging. For this reason, we developed a novel positron emission tomography (PET) probe, termed [11C]MeDAS, that is capable of longitudinally imaging central nervous system myelin content.

Myelin repair and functional recovery mediated by neural cell transplantation in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.

Cellular therapies are becoming a major focus for the treatment of demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), therefore it is important to identify the most effective cell types that promote myelin repair. Several components contribute to the relative benefits of specific cell types including the overall efficacy of the cell therapy, the reproducibility of treatment, the mechanisms of action of distinct cell types and the ease of isolation and generation of therapeutic populations. A range of distinct cell populations promote functional recovery in animal models of MS including neural stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells derived from different tissues.

Hepatocyte growth factor mediates mesenchymal stem cell–induced recovery in multiple sclerosis models.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have emerged as a potential therapy for a range of neural insults. In animal models of multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that targets oligodendrocytes and myelin, treatment with human MSCs results in functional improvement that reflects both modulation of the immune response and myelin repair. Here we demonstrate that conditioned medium from human MSCs (MSC-CM) reduces functional deficits in mouse MOG35–55-induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and promotes the development of oligodendrocytes and neurons.