Demonstration of demyelination and remyelination in mice model of multiple sclerosis

Objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, autoimmune, inflammatory, demyelinating disease that affects the central nervous system (CNS). Genetics and environmental risk factors are thought to play an important role in the MS pathophysiology, specific pathogenesis to MS is not well described. Aim of this study was to investigate the systemic effects of cuprizone on demyelination and to get more information on MS pathogenesis. We have allowed reaching a good knowledge of the pathogenesis of MS. Method: 40 male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into four groups. (1) Demyelination control group which was fed 6 weeks with normal chow; (2) Demyelination group was administered 0.2% cuprizone for 6 weeks via gavage daily; (3) Remyelination group was administered 0.2% cuprizone for 6 weeks via gavage and then fed with normal chow for 6 weeks; (4) Remyelination control group which was fed with normal chow for 12 weeks. Demyelination and remyelination groups were evaluated to walking, open field and tail-flick tests and determined the myelin basic protein (MBP) and glial fibrially acidic protein (GFAP) expressions by using immunohistochemical techniques on hippocampus and corpus callosum. Results: We observed increased GFAP and also decreased MBP expressions in hippocampus and corpus callosum of demyelination group compared to the control and remyelination groups. Walking test results of the demyelination group showed that increased overlap and the orthogonal distance from the toe of one paw to the hind pad of the opposite paw (TOF). Open field area test results of the demyelination group showed that decreased locomotor activity. Tail flick test results indicated that demyelination group's latency was longer than remyelination group. Conclusion: According to our results, cuprizone is a suitable agent for creating MS model on mice. In the continuation of the current work, we believe that the examinations of central and peripheral formations can be used for new projects.