Retinal ganglion cell axons are heavily myelinated (98%) and myelin damage in the optic nerve (ON) severely affects vision. Understanding the molecular mechanism of oligodendrocyte progenitor cell (OPC) differentiation into mature oligodendrocytes will be essential for developing new therapeutic approaches for ON demyelinating diseases. To this end, we developed a new method for isolation and culture of ON-derived oligodendrocyte lineage cells and used it to study OPC differentiation. A critical...