File:Myelination animation.gif

Myelination animation

This simple animation shows how during development a glial cell myelinates a neural axon.

• Grey - axon
• Brown - glia cytoplasm
• Blue - glia nucleus
• Black - glia cell membrane, forming myelin sheath.
• mesaxon - site of glial membrane initial contact.

Myelination process

• Peripheral glial cell - Schwann cell.
• Central glial cell - Oligodendrocyte.
• leads to an increased conduction velocity within the axon that is myelinated compared to an unmyelinated axon.
• occurs late in neural development in both the central and peripheral nervous system.
  • begins in third trimester and continues postnatally. (More? Neural development overview table)
• glia develop (later) from the same stem cell population as neurons.

Links: Neural development overview table | Image - myelinated axons | Medicine Histology | Science Histology | Neural System Development |

Links: Histology | Histology Stains | Blue Histology images copyright Lutz Slomianka 1998-2009. The literary and artistic works on the original Blue Histology website may be reproduced, adapted, published and distributed for non-commercial purposes. See also the page Histology Stains.

Cite this page: Hill, M.A. (2024, April 26) Embryology Myelination animation.gif. Retrieved from https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/File:Myelination_animation.gif

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© Dr Mark Hill 2024, UNSW Embryology ISBN: 978 0 7334 2609 4 - UNSW CRICOS Provider Code No. 00098G