title: Oligodendrocyte plasticity with an intact cell body in vitro.
abstract: Demyelination is generally regarded as a consequence of oligodendrocytic cell death. Oligodendrocyte processes that form myelin sheaths may, however, degenerate and regenerate independently of the cell body, in which case cell death does not necessarily occur. We provide here the first evidence of retraction and regeneration of oligodendrocyte processes with no cell death in vitro, using time-lapse imaging. When processes were severed mechanically in vitro, the cells did not undergo cell death and the processes regenerated in 36 h. In a separate experiment, moderate N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) stimuli caused process retraction without apparent cell death, and the processes regained their elaborate morphology after NMDA was removed from the culture medium. These results strongly suggest that demyelination and remyelination can take place without concomitant cell death, at least in vitro. Process regeneration may therefore become a target for future therapy of demyelinating disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan. mmm@naramed-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Manabu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Makinodan
authors.forename: Aya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Okuda-Yamamoto
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ikawa
authors.forename: Michihiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Toritsuka
authors.forename: Tomohiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: Sohei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kimoto
authors.forename: Kouko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tatsumi
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Okuda
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Akio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wanaka
authors.forename: Toshifumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kishimoto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016202:N-Methylaspartate / Q000494:pharmacology; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009836:Oligodendroglia / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D016202:N-Methylaspartate