Remyelination of mouse spinal cord axons demyelinated by local injection of lysolecithin

Local injections of lysolecithin are commonly used to produce areas of demyelination in the CNS. For the mouse, the demyelinating initial phase of lesion development has been described previously but the spontaneous repair which follows has not. In this study we describe the morphological sequelae which result from the injection of 2 microliters of 1% lysolecithin into the spinal cord of adult mice. Lesion length was variable, extending 8 mm or more in 33% of lesioned animals. By 7 days after injection very little extracellular myelin debris was detected and remyelination had commenced. Remyelination progressed rapidly so that almost all axons were invested by myelin sheaths by 23 days. Remyelination was accompanied by a prominent astrocytosis. The long lesion length and the rapidity of repair has important implications for studies designed to assess the ability of transplanted myelinogenic cells to migrate towards demyelinating lesions.