Enhanced Oligodendrocyte Survival after Spinal Cord Injury in Bax-Deficient Mice and Mice with Delayed Wallerian Degeneration

This study investigates how oligodendrocytes, cells that help protect nerve fibers in the spinal cord, die after a spinal cord injury (SCI). The researchers used mice with a mutation (Wlds) that slows down the breakdown of damaged nerve fibers and mice lacking a protein called Bax, which is involved in cell death. The results showed that oligodendrocytes were protected in mice with the Wlds mutation, but only temporarily. Once the damaged nerve fibers eventually broke down, the oligodendrocytes died. In contrast, the oligodendrocytes were protected long-term in mice lacking Bax. These findings suggest that the death of nerve fibers after SCI triggers a process that leads to oligodendrocyte death, and that the Bax protein plays a key role in this process.

• 1
  Oligodendrocyte death occurs via apoptosis following spinal cord injury.
• 2
  The Wld s mutation delays oligodendrocyte death, but the protection is transient.
• 3
  Bax deficiency prevents oligodendrocyte death long-term after SCI.