Grant: Project Grant

Myelin is the fatty insolation layer surrounding nerve fibres that enables the fast conduction of electrical impulses. This layer also plays a role in the nutrition and maintenance of the nerve fibres themselves. Loss of myelin occurs in diseases like multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury. The nervous system can repair myelin (by a process called remyelination) but remyelination is incomplete and fails with increasing age. We hypothesize that this ultimately leads to the degeneration of the nerve fibres in the spinal cord. We further propose that this degeneration is responsible for the age-dependent functional decline after chronic spinal cord injury regularly seen in people. Using mouse models that allow us to visualize, inhibit and stimulate myelin repair we will provide proof of concept for this novel approach to treat chronic spinal cord injury and possibly aging of the brain.