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Brain's white matter -- More 'talkative' than once thought

es electrical signals in the OPCs. A further microscopic hunt revealed that pools of glutamate were present in the nerve fibers wherever they touched OPCs. All of the nerve cells in the white matter that released glutamate within reach of OPCs, moreover, had something in common: no myelin insulation.

Normally myelin speeds electrical impulses. Cells lacking the coating fire 20 to 90 times slower than cells coated with myelin. Myelin loss is well known to impair signaling and information processing, causing nerve cells to die and creating such neurodegenerative conditions as multiple sclerosis.

Bergles speculates that this white matter activity his team discovered may help “naked?nerve cells signal nearby OPCs and say “cover me with myelin because we need to replace another cell that has been damaged.?
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Source:Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions


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