Film on the making of sensitive myelin sheaths
much like the electrical wiring in homes, nerves in the body need to be completely covered by a layer of insulation to work properly. The wiring in the nervous system is protected by layers of an insulating protein called myelin. These layers increase the speed of nerve impulses that travel throughout the brain and the body.
The formation of myelin sheaths during development requires a complex choreography of the interaction between different kinds of cells. A group of Vanderbilt University at Tennessee researchers has successfully produced movies that provide the first direct view of the initial stage of this process: the period when the cells that ultimately produce the myelin sheathing spread throughout the developing nervous system. The results were published online in the journal Nature Neuroscience on November 12 and should aid in the design of new therapies to promote the repair of myelin after disease or injury.
"We discovered that this process is far more dynamic than anyone had dreamed,' says Bruce Appel, associate professor of biological sciences and Kennedy Center investigator who headed the study. In the central nervous system, the myelin membranes are produced by cells called oligodendrocytes. These cells must be distributed uniformly along axons