MyCounterpane founder Kate Milliken spoke with Dr. Ari Green, Medical Director at the University of California, San Francisco Neuro-Immunology + MS Center on December 2, 2016, to discuss all things MS and myelin.

If you’ve ever wondered why some tissues repair (a broken bone, for instance), and others don’t (myelin in MS patients), this discussion is for you. You can watch the conversation below.

Dr. Green discusses why we’ve come to believe MS myelin damage has a certain degree of permanence, why different species regenerate myelin within one month, and how working with scientists is opening up the doors to finding new therapies to allow myelin repair to occur.

Dr. Green explains,

“I think we’re really interested in neurodegenerative conditions. But there we have stem cells in our body; those stem cells are what allows our tissues to repair themselves. And the thing that has been known now for a number of decades is that those stem cells for myelin are also there in the brain and it’s just a question of why don’t they do their work? Why don’t they mature and advance into myelin-producing cells and repair lesions after they happen?”

Watch the video below to learn more about MS, myelin, and the continual work being done to drugs for neurodegenerative diseases.