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Do Action Potentials Regulate Myelination?

Biologie des Interactions Neurones-Glie Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U-495 Université P. M. Curie Hôpital de la Salpêtrière Paris, FranceLaboratory of Developmental Neurobiology National Institute of Child Health and Human Development National Institutes of Health Bethesda, Maryland

R. Douglas Fields

Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology National Institute of Child Health and Human Development National Institutes of Health Bethesda, MarylandBiologie des Interactions Neurones-Glie Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U-495 Université P. M. Curie Hôpital de la Salpêtrière Paris, France

A variety of anatomical features suggest that functional activity in the nervous system can influence the process of myelination, yet direct evidence of this is lacking. Research by Zalc and colleagues shows that myelination of optic nerve is inhibited by a neurotoxin that blocks action potential activity and is stimulated by a toxin that increases impulse activity, suggesting that impulse activity is necessary for initiating myelination during development of the optic nerve. Research by Fields and colleagues, using electrical stimulation of axons, shows that low frequency impulse activity inhibits myelination of dorsal root ganglion neurons, but high frequency impulse activity has no effect. This results from reduced expression of a cell adhesion molecule on the stimulated axons that is critical for inducing myelination. Together these studies support the conclusion that impulse activity can influence the process of myelination, probably through more than one molecular mechanism operating during discrete steps in the myelination process. NEUROSCIENTIST 6:5-13, 2000

Key Words: Myelination, • Activity-dependent, • Action potential, • Oligodendrocyte, • Schwann cell, • Dorsal root ganglion (DRG), • Optic nerve, • Cell adhesion molecule, • L 1, • tetrodotoxin (TTX)

The Neuroscientist, Vol. 6, No. 1, 5-13 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/107385840000600109


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