image: An oligodencrocyte (green) probing multiple nerve axons (purple) to determine which fibers to insulate with myelin. Neural impulse activity stimulates the formation of an adhesive signaling complex between the probing fingers of an oligodendrocyte, and then triggers the synthesis of myelin protein to form myelin preferentially on electrically active axons. Cell nuclei are blue. 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 R. Douglas Fields and Hiroaki Wake, NIH