Utilizing mouse optic nerve crush to examine CNS remyelination

In developing pro-myelination treatment, an important hurdle is the lack of reliable animal models for assessing de novo myelination in disease settings. We recently showed that regenerated axons in injured optic nerves fail to be myelinated, providing an animal model for this purpose. Here, we describe procedures to promote axonal regeneration, administer optic nerve crush, and assess oligodendrocyte differentiation and maturation into myelination-competent oligodendrocytes. This protocol allows for testing the efficacy of remyelination treatments in an in vivo central nervous system (CNS). For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Wang et al. (2020) and Bei et al. (2016).