Nat. Rev. Urol. doi:10.1038/nrurol.2016.53 Figure 1 Mechanisms of neuronal injury and degeneration in patients with multiple sclerosis Figure 1 | Mechanisms of neuronal injury and degeneration in patients with multiple sclerosis. a | Proinflammatory and cytotoxic molecules released by inflammatory cells within subarachnoid or intracortical immune infiltrates, as well as cell contact-dependent mechanisms of T-cell mediated damage, might lead to microglia and/or macrophage activation and oligodendrocyte injury. This process can directly or indirectly lead to death of the neuronal cell body and nuclei (lower panel). Such cell death leads to morphological alterations, such as the characteristic pycnotic nuclei, shrinkage of dendrites and axonal degeneration in the cerebral cortex. This could in turn lead to dysfunction of the downstream neuronal network via anterograde trans-synaptic (Wallerian) degeneration. b | Undisturbed neuronal connectivity, and its related functions, could be impaired by retrograde degeneration propagating backwards in cortical neurons whose axons have been damaged in white matter lesions or along white matter tracts such as the corticospinal tract. This white matter tract damage can lead to microglial activation and retrograde neuronal cell death. Reproduced with permission obtained from Nature Publishing Group © Calabrese, M. et al. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 16, 147–158 (2015). Reproduced with permission obtained from Nature Publishing Group © Calabrese, M. et al. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 16, 147– 158 (2015) Phé, V. et al. (2016) Management of neurogenic bladder in patients with multiple sclerosis Nat. Rev. Urol. doi:10.1038/nrurol.2016.53