Axonal and neuronal damage as pathological substrates of disease progression in MS (B09)

• Subject Area: Molecular and Cellular Neurology and Neuropathology
• Term: from 2008 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 29837756

The project aims to dissect disease mechanisms in late stage, progressive multiple sclerosis by focusing on two major pathological correlates of disease progression, namely cortical demyelination and chronic active "smouldering" lesions. Specifically, the phenotype of adaptive and innate immune cells and their association with the demyelinating and axon-damaging lesion rim will be studied using quantitative immunohistology and unbiased expression analysis. With regard to cortical demyelination, the relative contribution of the complement system to antibody-mediated lesion formation will be assessed. In addition, the role of the CX3CR1-fractalkine system for cortical microglia reactivity in the frame of cortical lesion formation will be in the focus.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 43: The Brain as a Target of Inflammatory Processes
• Applicant Institution: shared FU Berlin and HU Berlin through:; Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Co-Applicant Institution: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Brück; Professorin Dr. Christine Stadelmann-Nessler