Fig. 1.

The autoimmune attack on oligodendrocytes and myelinated axons. The central process in the pathology of relapsing MS is the infiltration of peripherally induced immune factors. These undertake a combined humoral (antibodies) and cellular (T cells, macrophages) on axon-enwrapping myelin-sheaths and myelin-forming oligodendrocytes. Paradoxically, myelin pathology in MS does not start at the myelin sheath surface, as in EAE models, but at the innermost lamellae that contact the axon. CDC: complement-dependent cytotoxicity, ADCC: antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity.