image: This is an oligodendrocyte in cell culture. Each of the slender extensions from the cell seeks out a nerve fiber to wrap layers of electrical insulation (myelin) around it. This image relates to an article that appeared in the Aug. 4, 2011, issue of Science Express, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. Hiroaki Wake of the National Institutes of Health, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues was titled, "Control of Local Protein Synthesis and Initial Events in Myelination by Action Potentials." view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Hiroaki Wake, NIH