Pathologic Factors and Spectrum of Central Nervous System Inflammatory Demyelinating Diseases

Abstract Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common cause of nontraumatic disability in young adults. It is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Traditionally, MS has been considered an autoimmune disorder consisting of myelin autoreactive T cells that drive an inflammatory process, leading to secondary macrophage recruitment and subsequent myelin destruction. However, accumulating data based on increasing numbers of probes that can be effectively applied to MS tissue have indicated that the events involved in the immunopathogenesis of MS may be more complicated.