cells Article Naturally Occurring Nervonic Acid Ester Improves Myelin Synthesis by Human Oligodendrocytes 1, 2, 2 2 Natalia Lewkowicz y, Paweł Pi ˛atek y , Magdalena Namieci ´nska , Małgorzata Domowicz , Radosław Bonikowski 3 , Janusz Szemraj 4, Patrycja Przygodzka 5 , Mariusz Stasiołek 2 and Przemysław Lewkowicz 2,* 1 Department of Periodontology and Oral Diseases, Medical University of Lodz, 92-213 Lodz, Poland 2 Department of Neurology, Laboratory of Neuroimmunology, Medical University of Lodz, Pomorska Str. 251, 92-213 Lodz, Poland 3 Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Science, Lodz University of Technology, 90-924 Lodz, Poland 4 Department of Medical Biochemistry, Medical University of Lodz, 92-215 Lodz, Poland 5 Institute of Medical Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 93-232 Lodz, Poland * Correspondence:
[email protected] These authors contributed equally to this work. y Received: 11 June 2019; Accepted: 26 July 2019; Published: 29 July 2019 Abstract: The dysfunction of oligodendrocytes (OLs) is regarded as one of the major causes of inefficient remyelination in multiple sclerosis, resulting gradually in disease progression. Oligodendrocytes are derived from oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs), which populate the adult central nervous system, but their physiological capability to myelin synthesis is limited. The low intake of essential lipids for sphingomyelin synthesis in the human diet may account for increased demyelination and the reduced efficiency of the remyelination process. In our study on lipid profiling in an experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis brain, we revealed that during acute inflammation, nervonic acid synthesis is silenced, which is the effect of shifting the lipid metabolism pathway of common substrates into proinflammatory arachidonic acid production.