Lesions and spinal cord atrophy
Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2004 12:41 pm
Dear all,
Article below is from the Boston Cure Project website. Looks like lesions may not be the primary culprits in spinal cord atropy (I wonder if this also holds true for the brain). Axonal degeneration is a phrase which keeps cropping up. Does anyone know how close researchers are to identifying the cause of the axonal degeneration and how it can be halted / reduced etc?
When will treatments stop being judged on how well they stop exacerbations / reduce lesions and focus on what seems to be the real issue - stopping the degenearation?
Bromley
"Disability in MS has been associated in some studies with the degree of spinal cord tissue loss, or atrophy, but how/why this atrophy occurs is not well understood. A recent analysis of post-mortem spinal cord tissue from MS cases and controls sought to examine this question. Researchers looked at cross-sectional areas and lesion loads in the spinal cords of 55 MS subjects and 33 controls. They confirmed that the degree of atrophy was higher in the MS spinal cords than the controls, and looked for factors that may be related to atrophy. They found that spinal cord lesions were not a key factor in influencing atrophy; on the other hand, duration of disease was the strongest determinant. The authors suggest that an axonal degenerative process, either affecting the spinal tissue directly or originating elsewhere in the CNS, is more important in causing spinal cord atrophy than local lesions."
Article below is from the Boston Cure Project website. Looks like lesions may not be the primary culprits in spinal cord atropy (I wonder if this also holds true for the brain). Axonal degeneration is a phrase which keeps cropping up. Does anyone know how close researchers are to identifying the cause of the axonal degeneration and how it can be halted / reduced etc?
When will treatments stop being judged on how well they stop exacerbations / reduce lesions and focus on what seems to be the real issue - stopping the degenearation?
Bromley
"Disability in MS has been associated in some studies with the degree of spinal cord tissue loss, or atrophy, but how/why this atrophy occurs is not well understood. A recent analysis of post-mortem spinal cord tissue from MS cases and controls sought to examine this question. Researchers looked at cross-sectional areas and lesion loads in the spinal cords of 55 MS subjects and 33 controls. They confirmed that the degree of atrophy was higher in the MS spinal cords than the controls, and looked for factors that may be related to atrophy. They found that spinal cord lesions were not a key factor in influencing atrophy; on the other hand, duration of disease was the strongest determinant. The authors suggest that an axonal degenerative process, either affecting the spinal tissue directly or originating elsewhere in the CNS, is more important in causing spinal cord atrophy than local lesions."