Author(s)

Hong Liao, Dixit Sanjaya Mani

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Oligodendrocytes, the myelinating glial cells of the nervous system, in various disease states display great vulnerability to excitotoxic damage, oxidative stress, and inflammatory cytokines. Besides demyelinating diseases where oligoden-drocyte injury is primarily implicated, damage to them also occurs secondarily in various neuropathies. Oligoprotec-tion should, therefore, be looked into something not just as a means for protecting oligodendrocytes alone but also as a common target of protecting neurons and the neurogliovascular unit as a whole. In this review, we provide a descrip-tion on oligodendrocytes, the reasons for their vulnerability, the evolving new concepts of protecting neurovascular unit and recently neurogliovascular unit; the various diseases where oligodendrocyte injury is implicated with a brief idea on different injury mechanisms of oligodendrocytes. Finally, we present the summary of the drugs that have shown promising results in protecting oligodendrocytes or in protecting white matter as a whole in different in-vivo and in-vitro models.

Oligodendrocytes, neurovascular unit, oxidative stress, excitotoxicity; demyelinating diseases, stroke, spinal cord injury, neuropharmacology

Liao, H. and Mani, D. (2011) Advances in Oligoprotection. Neuroscience and Medicine, 2, 93-103. doi: 10.4236/nm.2011.22014.