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0:00
Hello. My name is Arthur Butt.
I'm a professor of
cellular neurophysiology
at the University of Portsmouth
in the United Kingdom.
In this lecture, I
will introduce you to
the general physiology of
oligodendrocytes and
their precursors.
0:17
The plan of the talk is to first
introduce oligodendrocytes
white matter and myelin.
Then I will go on to
describe in more detail,
the cell biology of
oligodendrocytes and myelin.
Importantly, I will emphasize
that oligodendrocytes
and axons are interdependent
functional units.
I'll explain the importance of
lifelong generation of
oligodendrocytes for learning.
Finally, I will outline
some features of
myelin pathology.
0:46
Oligodendrocytes are
the myelinated cells
of the central nervous system.
Myelin is the insulating
wrapping around axons that
enables the rapid conduction
of electrical signals.
We will look at this more
closely in a short while.
Oligodendrocytes are found
exclusively in the CNS,
whereas in the peripheral
nervous system,
myelination is the
function of Schwann Cells.
Oligodendrocytes
were first described
by the famous Spanish anatomist,
Pio del Rio Hortega.
He named them from
the Greek for a cell,
cycte with few oligo
processes dendro.
I.e. oligo dendro cyte.
This is illustrated
in the figure which
shows an individual
oligodendrocyte with
a central cell body that
extends a small number of
connective processes to support
multiple myelin sheaths.
These myelin segments terminate
at nodes of Ranvier
as indicated.
The scale bar is ten microns,
indicating the small size of
the oligodendrocyte cell
body and the long length of
the myelin sheaths all over 100
microns for each
internodal myelin segment.
