What is oligodendrocytes and its function?
oligodendrocyte, a type of neuroglia found in the central nervous system of invertebrates and vertebrates that functions to produce myelin, an insulating sheath on the axons of nerve fibres.
What is a oligodendrocyte cell?
Oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) are immature cells in the central nervous system (CNS) that can rapidly respond to changes within their environment by modulating their proliferation, motility and differentiation.
Where are oligodendrocytes cells found?
the central nervous system
Oligodendrocytes are found only in the central nervous system, which comprises the brain and spinal cord.
How do oligodendrocytes work?
Oligodendrocytes form the isolating sheath around the axons, which is essential for fast signal conduction. A traumatic spinal cord injury causes damage to those cells followed by the loss of isolation sheaths. As a result the conduction of electrical signals is massively impaired inside the axons.
What happens when oligodendrocytes are damaged?
Furthermore, if oligodendrocytes become damaged and the myelin sheath is destroyed, the action potential is reduced in velocity or ceases altogether, leading to physical or mental disability.
What is the function of an astrocyte?
Astrocytes are the most numerous cell type within the central nervous system (CNS) and perform a variety of tasks, from axon guidance and synaptic support, to the control of the blood brain barrier and blood flow.
What is the size of oligodendrocyte?
approximately 6–8 μm
Oligodendrocytes have a small cell body of approximately 6–8 μm in diameter (Karasek et al., 2004). Their nuclei are relatively large and, as seen by electron microscopy, are rich in heterochromatin.
Which statement is true regarding the action of an oligodendrocyte?
Which statement is true regarding the action of an oligodendrocyte? Each oligodendrocyte can form a myelin sheath around many axons simultaneously. An oligodendrocyte is responsible for forming part of the blood-brain barrier.
Why is the oligodendrocyte important?
Oligodendrocytes are the myelinating glia of the central nervous system. Myelination of axons allows rapid saltatory conduction of nerve impulses and contributes to axonal integrity.
What are oligodendrocytes quizlet?
Oligodendrocytes. A CNS glial cell that forms myelin sheaths. It forms the myelin that surrounds many axons in the CNS. Each cell forms one segment of myelin for several adjacent axons.
Is an oligodendrocyte and Schwann cell?
In vertebrates, oligodendrocytes (OLs) and Schwann cells (SCs) are specialized glial cells that generate the myelin sheaths of the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS), respectively.
How do you keep oligodendrocytes healthy?
Exercise training protects against loss of OPCs or mature oligodendrocytes induced by a high-fat diet. The SHF group had 30 to 50 percent fewer OPCs. While exercise alone didn’t affect the OPC or oligodendrocyte numbers, mice in the EHF group did not experience OPC loss.
What is an oligodendrocyte?
Oligodendrocytes are glial cells that form the myelin of the central nervous system and are present in both gray and white matter. As noted above, a single oligodendrocyte may myelinate axons from multiple neurons. In H&E and cresyl violet preparations, oligodendrocytes have small (7 µm) round to oval nuclei with compact chromatin.
Who discovered oligodendrocytes?
Oligodendrocytes were discovered by Pío del Río Hortega. Oligodendrocytes are a type of glial cell.
What is the role of oligodendrocytes in ALS?
Oligodendrocytes are another type of glial cells and these cells are responsible for the myelination of axons in the central nervous system (CNS). There is recent evidence that oligodendrocytes could also play an important role in ALS (for a review: [62] ).
What is the role of oligodendrocyte-derived glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor?
203. Wilkins A, Majed H, Layfield R, Compston A, Chandran S. Oligodendrocytes promote neuronal survival and axonal length by distinct intracellular mechanisms: a novel role for oligodendrocyte-derived glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor. J Neurosci. 2003;23:4967–4974.