The Biology of Oligodendrocytes

Patricia Armati is Associate Professor of Neuroscience and co-director of the Nerve Research Foundation, Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney, Australia. She has a long standing interest in the cells of the nervous system and the relationship to disease and is editor of The Biology of Schwann Cells (Cambridge University Press, 2007). Emily Mathey is a postdoctoral scientist at the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney. She has a keen interest in both immunology and neurobiology with particular emphasis on pathogenic antibody responses in demyelinating disease of the peripheral and central nervous systems.

The first dedicated review of all major aspects of oligodendrocyte biology and their role in disease and neural repair.

List of contributors; Preface; 1. CNS oligarchs. The rise of the oligodendrocyte in a neuron-centric culture Emily Mathey, Ariel Arthur and Patricia Armati; 2. Comparative biology of Schwann cells and oligodendrocytes Rudolf Martini, Janos Groh and Udo Bartsch; 3. Control of oligodendrocyte development and myelination in the vertebrate CNS Robert H. Miller; 4. Molecular organization of the oligodendrocyte and myelin Grahame Kidd and Bruce D. Trapp; 5. The genetics of oligodendrocytes Joseph A. Nielsen, Pierre Lau and Lynn D. Hudson; 6. Immunobiology of the oligodendrocyte David Kremer, Orhan Aktas, Hans-Peter Hartung and Patrick Küry; 7. Oligodendrocytes and disease: repair, remyelination and stem cells Neil Scolding; 8. Glial progenitor cells and the dynamics of the oligodendrocyte and its myelin in the aged and injured CNS Jurate Lasiene and Philip J. Horner; 9. Oligodendroglial pathology in MS Tanja Kuhlmann and Wolfgang Brück; 10. Glutamate receptors, transporters, and periventricular leukomalacia Tara M. Desilva and Paul A. Rosenberg; References; Index.