Most diseases yield their secrets only through the painstaking laboratory work of research scientists. Laboratory work on MS showed us many essential aspects of the disease. A key culprit in MS is the white blood cell called a T cell. Although many details about the sequence of events in the process still remain to be learned, we know that T cells become activated, leave the bloodstream, and enter brain tissue to damage myelin, the fatty protein substance that insulates and protects nerve fibers. This T cell has now been identified and characterized in detail.

Recent discoveries also emphasize that myelin is not the only target for destruction in MS. Often the underlying nerve cells, the neurons and their axons, are damaged as well. This may account for much of the permanent disability MS causes. Myelin might be repaired or restored by natural processes in the body, but not nerve cells. Once lost, their failure is permanent.

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Written by Loren A. Rolak, MD. Reproduced by permission from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, USA. © NMSS, 2003