Control of demyelination for recovery of spinal cord injury

Since loss of oligodendrocytes and consequent demy-elination of spared axons severely impair the functional re-covery of injured spinal cord, it is reasonably expected that the reduction of oligodendroglial death and enhanced remyelination of demyelinated axons will have a therapeutic potential to treat spinal cord injury. Amelioration of axonal myelination in the injured spinal cord is valuable for recov-ery of the neural function of incompletely injured patients. Here, this article presents an overview about the patho- physiology and mechanism of axonal demyelination in spi-nal cord injury and discusses its therapeutic significance in the treatment of spinal cord injury. Moreover, it further in-troduces the recent strategies to improve the axonal myeliantion to facilitate functional recovery of spinal cord injury.