N-Acetylaspartate Drives Oligodendroglial Differentiation via Histone Deacetylase Activation.

An unmet clinical goal in demyelinating pathologies is to restore the myelin sheath prior to neural degeneration. N-acetylaspartate (NAA) is an acetylated derivative form of aspartate, abundant in the healthy brain but severely reduced during traumatic brain injury and in patients with neurodegenerative pathologies. How extracellular NAA variations impact the remyelination process and, thereby, the ability of oligodendrocytes to remyelinate axons remains unexplored.