title: Myelinophagy: Schwann cells dine in.
abstract: When nerve injury occurs, the axon and myelin fragments distal to the injury site have to be cleared away before repair. In this issue, Gomez-Sanchez et al. (2015; J. Cell Biol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201503019) find that clearance of the damaged myelin within Schwann cells occurs not by phagocytosis but rather via selective autophagy, in a process they term "myelinophagy."
authors.affiliation: University Medicine, Institute of Cellular Biochemistry, University of Göttingen, D-37073 Goettingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thumm
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Göttingen, D-37073 Goettingen, Germany Cellular Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, 37075 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Mikael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simons
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001343:Autophagy; D009186:Myelin Sheath / Q000473:pathology*; D059348:Peripheral Nerve Injuries / Q000473:pathology*