Vesicular removal by oligodendrocytes of membrane attack complexes formed by activated complement

Abstract

OLIGODENDROCYTES synthesize myelin in the central nervous system and maintain it in lamellar sheaths around axons. Techniques for studying oligodendrocyte development in vitro¹ can be used, indirectly, to investigate the myelin injury that occurs in human and experimental demyelinating disease². Cell-mediated immune mechanisms are necessary but not sufficient to induce myelin damage in vivo; more recently complement has also been implicated in the pathogenesis both of multiple sclerosis^3–5and experimental allergic encephalomyelitis⁶. Previously we have demonstrated that antibody-independent complement activation occurs in vitro at the oligodendrocyte surface⁷. Here we show that the ensuing oligodendrocyte injury is reversible, and that recovery involves the release of membrane-attack complex-enriched vesicles from the surface of viable cells. The demonstration of morphologically and immunochemically identical vesicles in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with multiple sclerosis suggests that reversible complement-mediated injury contributes to myelin damage in vivo.