People with multiple sclerosis lose myelin in grey matter

[MSUK]

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) lose myelin in the grey matter of their brains and the loss is closely correlated with the severity of the disease, according to a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study. Researchers said the findings could have important applications in clinical trials and treatment monitoring. The study appears online in the journal Radiology.

Loss of myelin, the fatty protective sheath around nerve fibres, is a characteristic of MS, an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that can lead to a variety of serious neurological symptoms and disability. MS is typically considered a disease of the brain's signal-conducting white matter, where myelin is most abundant, but myelin is also present in smaller amounts in grey matter, the brain's information processing center that is made up primarily of nerve cell bodies. Though the myelin content in grey matter is small, it is still extremely important to proper function, as it enables protection of thin nerve fibers connecting neighboring areas of the brain cortex, according to Vasily L. Yarnykh, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Radiology at University of Washington in Seattle....... Read more - http://www.ms-uk.org/myelin

[Leonard]

I understand people also loose sight, the eye nerve get affected.
but the eye nerve has no myelin.
is myelin only a small part of a bigger problem?

[NHE]

I understand people also loose sight, the eye nerve get affected.
but the eye nerve has no myelin.
is myelin only a small part of a bigger problem?

The optic nerve is myelinated up to the point where it enters the eye.

http://www.opticianonline.net/myelinated-nerve-fibres/

• "Within the intracranial portion of the optic nerve, myelin sheaths are produced by oligodendrocytes and surround the nerve fibres until they reach the lamina cribrosa within the optic nerve head."

A diagram showing the location of the lamina cribrosa.

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/pls/portalli ... 647697.JPG