Beyond immunomodulation: The regenerative role for regulatory T cells in central nervous system remyelination

Central nervous system regeneration after injury can occur in the form of remyelination, the reinstatement of myelin around axons which restores axon health and function. However, remyelination often fails in chronic neurological diseases, such as progressive multiple sclerosis. The lack of currently approved pro-remyelination therapies highlights the need to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms underpinning this regenerative process. Whereas some T lymphocyte subsets such as Th1 and Th17 are implicated in inducing myelin injury, a recent study by Dombrowski et al. reveals a novel role for regulatory T cells (T(regs)) in directly driving remyelination, independent of immunomodulation (Nat Neurosci doi:10.1038/nn.4528 2017)(Dombrowski et al., 2017). This study is summarized in this Bits and Bytes.