Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, which destroys myelin and the oligodendrocytes that produce it, and thereby disrupts the normal conduction of central axons. Remyelination can occur, but this capacity becomes limited with repeated or chronic demyelinating episodes and results in neurologic disability.
The aim of this literature study is to examine the effect of the growth factor, Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), on remyelination. Knowledge about the role of PGDF and other trophic factors in regulating remyelination may lead to future therapeutic strategies to enhance remyelination caused by MS and other demyelinating diseases.
Several studies in vitro have shown that PDGF can contribute to regulate oligodendrocyte progenitor (OP) proliferation, differentiation and survival in demyelinating lesions. But the response of human oligodendrocytes to PDGF is not well defined. There are a lot of questions which remain to be answered, and these are attracting much new research. For this reason there is some promise that treatments of MS that involve the promotion of myelin repair by PDGF will be discovered in the future.