The pathology of primary progressive multiple sclerosis

Abstract

The present review will focus on the current knowledge of the pathology of primary progressive multiple sclerosis lesions. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease with a broad clinical variability. The main disease courses are relapsing-remitting, secondary progressive and primary progressive MS. Pathological studies examining the specific underlying pathology of a defined clinical subtype are rare. Here, we focus on the phatological characteristics of the MS lesions and summarize the current findings of the phatology of primary progressive MS with respect to inflammation, oligodendrocyte/myelin pathology, axon destruction and immunopathology of the lesions.