You will prepare and submit a term paper on Similarity between the Pathological Processes in the Body and the CNS. Your paper should be a minimum of 1250 words in length.

You will prepare and submit a term paper on Similarity between the Pathological Processes in the Body and the CNS. Your paper should be a minimum of 1250 words in length. The CNS is connected to the other parts by bundles of axons called axons. Axons are located in the white matter while the cell bodies of neurons in the CNS are in regions referred to as the gray matter (Kiernan & Rajakumar, 2013).

Other than the neurons, the central nervous system has four types of glial cells, the oligodendrocytes, microglia, astrocytes, and ependymal cells. Oligodendrocytes ensure myelination in the CNS and hold axons together. The microglia are macrophages and their function is to remove foreign matter such as pathogens. The ependymal cells are epithelial cells lining the internal surface of the ventricle and the CNS, therefore, acting as a barrier between the nervous system and the fluid in the cavities. The astrocytes provide support by holding cell bodies and axons and also regulate nutrition and metabolic processes (Palastanga & Soames, 2012).

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic relapsing demyelinating inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. The glial and neuronal components of the central nervous system are destructed by the inflammatory and the immune-mediated processes. Formation of disseminated focal lesions in the gray and white matter of the brain and the spinal cord leading to the destruction of oligodendrocytes, axon loss and degeneration, demyelination of axons and neuronal damage (Kesselring, et al., 2010). Below are two diagrams that show a norma myelin sheath and one under that is demyelinated.

The cardiovascular system has blood vessels that are classified into arteries, resistance vessels, and capillaries. In a normal artery wall it is composed of two-layer. the intima and the media. The intima is made up of a single layer of endothelial cells that are seated on the basement membrane then the internal elastic lamina. Beneath the internal elastic lamina is the medial layer consisting of the vascular smooth muscle cells surrounded by the basement membrane and embedded in the interstitial extracellular matrix. The boundary of the media marked by the external elastic lamina.