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Asked by: Abarne Bagg
medical health brain and nervous system disordersWhat causes Wallerian degeneration?
Any lesion of the axons that leads to an interruption and any lesion of the nerve cell bodies that leads to the cell death is followed by Wallerian degeneration. In the CNS common causes are infarction, hemorrhage, tumors, and head injury with shearing of nerve fibers.
Thereof, what is Wallerian degeneration?
Wallerian degeneration is an active process of degeneration that results when a nerve fiber is cut or crushed and the part of the axon distal to the injury (i.e. farther from the neuron's cell body) degenerates.
Also, why does Wallerian degeneration occur?
Wallerian degeneration: process that occurs when a neuron is damaged so severely that part of the axon is disconnected from the soma of the neuron. The disconnected portion of the axon is degenerated and eventually the remaining debris is cleared from the nervous system through the help of glial cells.
In the PNS, rapid WD results in an extracellular environment that promotes axon regeneration, whereas in the mammalian CNS, slow WD results in the prolonged presence of myelin-associated in- hibitors that likely contribute to the failure of CNS axons to regenerate.