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Myelin Imaging

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Advances in Brain Imaging Techniques

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Abstract

Central myelin is an envelope composed of dozens of superimposed layers of the plasma membrane of oligodendrocytes around the neural axons. This sheath functions as an insulator that increases the efficiency and speed of the electrical impulse. Several traditional staining methods have been available to observe myelin in tissue sections for many years. However, most of what we know about the structure and organization of myelin comes from transmission electron microscopy images. Nowadays, specific molecular components of myelin can be identified and visualized by fluorescence microscopy. Even though, their lipidic nature is much more difficult to observe by this kind of microscopy technique. In the last years, superresolution and other imaging techniques were developed and applied to the study of myelin. Thanks to these and other advances in imaging that are described in this chapter, new structural details as well as many of the fine steps involved in myelination are now visually accessible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biophotonics Lab, Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica A.C., León, Guanajuato, Mexico

    Valeria Piazza

  2. Neuroscience Lab, División de Ciencias e Ingenierías, Universidad de Guanajuato, León, Guanajuato, Mexico

    Victor H. Hernandez

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  1. Valeria Piazza
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  2. Victor H. Hernandez
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Correspondence to Valeria Piazza .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biophysics, Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India

    Nirmal Mazumder

  2. Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India

    Gireesh Gangadharan

  3. Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia

    Yury V. Kistenev

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Piazza, V., Hernandez, V.H. (2022). Myelin Imaging. In: Mazumder, N., Gangadharan, G., Kistenev, Y.V. (eds) Advances in Brain Imaging Techniques. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1352-5_5

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