Immunological aspects of demyelination.

Important progresses made recently have allowed the development of markers that can be used to characterize the myelin oligodendrocyte compartment. Application of these immunological methods to the investigation of a wide range of disorders of the nervous system has proved extremely valuable. The author selects one example that concerns a group of demyelinating neuropathy associated with a monoclonal protein and presents evidence suggesting that one myelin constituent, a myelin associated glycoprotein, may induce autoimmunity in humans.