Vitamin D was significantly lower in people with recurrent transverse myelitis, neuromyelitis optica, and related inflammatory spinal diseases, researchers found. On the other hand, there appears to be no link between the vitamin and idiopathic transverse myelitis, which does not recur, according to Michael Levy, MD, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues. The finding, from a retrospective analysis, is reminiscent of what has been seen in multiple sclerosis and other recurrent autoimmune illnesses, and may provide clues to the role vitamin D plays in immune regulation, Levy and colleagues argued online in Archives of Neurology .
In neuromyelitis optica (NMO), B-cell autoimmunity to aquaporin-4 (AQP4) has been shown to be essential. However, the role of T cells remains ambiguous
The panglial syncytium maintains ionic conditions required for normal neuronal electrical activity in the central nervous system (CNS). Vital among these homeostatic functions is “potassium siphoning,” a process originally proposed to explain astrocytic sequestration and long-distance disposal of K(+) released from unmyelinated axons during each action potential. Fundamentally different, more efficient processes are required in myelinated axons, where axonal K(+) efflux occurs exclusively beneath and enclosed within the myelin sheath, precluding direct sequestration of K(+) by nearby astrocytes.