title: [Recent prognosis on etiology and pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis].
abstract: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. MS is characterized by axonal degeneration and glial scarring, and the formation of MS lesions is complex, involving cytokines, chemokines, and immunoglobulins. Environmental and genetic risk factors are clearly involved in the occurrence of MS although its etiology and pathophysiology are incompletely understood. In recent genetic studies on MS, approaches of genome-wide association study have been applied, and the several susceptibility genes of MS have been reported. Recent immunological studies have revealed the importance of IL-17 and Th17 cells in the pathogenesis of MS. This review discusses recent findings on etiology and pathophysiolosy of MS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Research, Hokkaido Medical Center.
authors.forename: Masaaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Niino
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000276:immunology; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology*