If this is true and the results can be reproduced, I dare say that these guys are on the road for Nobel...
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New Findings | 17 Apr 2014
Myelin and Axons Don’t Form a Perfect, Uniform UnionNew findings may rewrite our understanding of just about everything myelin-related. Outside experts describe the study as “landmark,” “novel,” “unexpected,” “new,” “important,” “surprising,” “stunning,” and “provocative.”
Emily Willingham, Ph.D.
Myelin, the fatty insulation that boosts nerve signal conduction, might not be the ubiquitous axonal sheath that the textbooks describe but instead an intermittent and finely regulating conductor of the neural symphony. Giulio Tomassy, Ph.D., and colleagues at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Neuroscience Institute of Turin report today in Science that myelin occurs in definable patterns along axons of specific neuronal groups, including a signature of intermittent myelination punctuated by long gaps of naked axon (Tomassy et al., 2014). Their findings may rewrite the neurobiological understanding of, well, just about everything myelin related, including multiple sclerosis.
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DOI:
doi/10.7493/msdf.10.10623.1
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more:
http://www.msdiscovery.org/news/new_findings/10623-myelin-and-axons-don%E2%80%99t-form-perfect-uniform-unionhttp://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6181/319.abstract[*QUOTE*]
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Science 18 April 2014:
Vol. 344 no. 6181 pp. 319-324
DOI: 10.1126/science.1249766
Report
Distinct Profiles of Myelin Distribution Along Single Axons of Pyramidal Neurons in the Neocortex
Giulio Srubek Tomassy1, Daniel R. Berger2,3, Hsu-Hsin Chen1, Narayanan Kasthuri2, Kenneth J. Hayworth2, Alessandro Vercelli4, H. Sebastian Seung3,*, Jeff W. Lichtman2, Paola Arlotta1,†
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Author Affiliations
1Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, 7 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
2Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
3Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
4Neuroscience Institute Cavalieri Ottolenghi, Neuroscience Institute of Turin, Corso M. d'Azeglio 52, 10126 Turin, Italy.
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Author Notes
↵* Present address: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
↵†Corresponding author. E-mail: paola_arlotta@harvard.edu
Abstract
Editor's Summary
Myelin is a defining feature of the vertebrate nervous system. Variability in the thickness of the myelin envelope is a structural feature affecting the conduction of neuronal signals. Conversely, the distribution of myelinated tracts along the length of axons has been assumed to be uniform. Here, we traced high-throughput electron microscopy reconstructions of single axons of pyramidal neurons in the mouse neocortex and built high-resolution maps of myelination. We find that individual neurons have distinct longitudinal distribution of myelin. Neurons in the superficial layers displayed the most diversified profiles, including a new pattern where myelinated segments are interspersed with long, unmyelinated tracts. Our data indicate that the profile of longitudinal distribution of myelin is an integral feature of neuronal identity and may have evolved as a strategy to modulate long-distance communication in the neocortex.
Received for publication 16 December 2013.
Accepted for publication 18 March 2014.
Read the Full Text
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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Please, do go to the original web-pages and read there. Many embedded URLs in the texts which I do not copy!
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Thema: Landmark discovery: Myelin and Axons Don’t Form a Perfect, Uniform Union (Gelesen 1278 mal)