Multiple Sclerosis medical animation - Polygon Medical Animation

Published on Jun 30, 2012

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms.

This medical animation shows how T cells cross the blood brain barrier and attacks the myelin. When the myelin is lost, the axons can no longer effectively conduct signals.

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What is MS? 

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system (CNS) – the brain and spinal cord.  MS is an autoimmune disease, where the immune system gets confused and instead of attacking an infection or virus it turns on itself and attacks nerve cells. 

The central nervous system cells are covered in a protective layer of fatty protein called the myelin sheath (a bit like insulation on an electrical cable).  It is these cells that are attacked by the faulty immune system and the damage that results is called demyelination.  During demyelination, messages from the brain are disrupted causing them to slow down, become distorted or not get through at all.  

The term ‘sclerosis’ means scarring: demyelination causes scars or lesions at sites within the CNS.  Thesymptoms of MS depend on where the scarring has taken place and how severe it has been.  This explains why people with MS experience different symptoms at different times. 

In the earlier stages of MS, the CNS can sometimes repair the damaged myelin or use different pathways to get signals through to the rest of the body.  This is why episodes of symptoms (relapses) can be followed by periods when symptoms improve or disappear altogether (remission). 

About 100,000 people in the UK have MS and of these, around three quarters are women.  Diagnosis is usually made in adults between the ages of 20 and 40, although it is possible for both children and older adults to develop MS.

Source: http://www.ms-uk.org/whatisms