The history of myelin.

The history of myelin. Exp Neurol. 2016 Jun 8; Authors: Boullerne AI Abstract Andreas Vesalius can be attributed the discovery of white matter in the 16th century but Van Leeuwenhoek is arguably the first to have observed myelinated fibers in 1717. A globular myelin theory followed claiming all elements of the nervous system, except for Fontana primitive cylinder with outer sheath in 1781. Remak axon revolution in 1836 relegated myelin to the unknown. Ehrenberg described nerve tubes with double borders in 1833, and Schwann nuclei in 1839, but the medullary sheath acquired its name of myelin coined by Virchow only in 1854. Thanks to Schultze osmium specific staining in 1865, myelin designates the structure known today. The origin of myelin though was baffling. Only after Ranvier discovered a periodic segmentation, which came to us as nodes of Ranvier, did he venture suggesting in 1872 the nerve internode was a fatty cell secreting myelin in cytoplasm. Ranvier hypothesis was met with high skepticism, because nobody could see the cytoplasm, and Schwann cell very slowly emerged in the vocabulary with von Lenhossék in 1895. When Cajal finally admitted the concept of Schwann cell internode in 1912, he still firmly believed myelin was secreted by the axon. Río-Hortega re-discovered oligodendrocytes in 1919 (after Robertson in 1899) and named them oligodendroglia in 1921, thereby antagonizing Cajal for discovering a second cell type in his...
Source: Experimental Neurology - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Exp Neurol Source Type: research