Glia Cell Alterations in Multiple Sclerosis

Summary

Early sterile autopsy material from cerebrum specimens of 12 MS patients was investigated using an electron microscope. The most interesting finding concerned certain inclusion bodies in cells (possible the so-called third type of neuroglial cells) from the margin of early lesions. These inclusions consisted of clusters of trilamellated tubular profiles with a thickness of about 17–20 nm. Such inclusions appeared in some oligodendrocytes within and outside the lesions (i.e., in macroscopically normal white matter), and in some macrophages. The nature of the inclusions and the origin and role of these cells in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS) requires further elucidation. Possibly they contain a neurogenic or viral antigen in MS, or else they might be the morphological expression of metabolic abnormalities.