The Why Files
093_Faulty wiring
"1. This image is a lengthwise section through mouse sciatic nerve taken with an electron microscope.
2. When you decide to pick up a glass to drink or kick a ball, the signals that active your muscles must travel as an electrical impulse down the length of your nerves. To speed up this process, the nerve axons are covered with an insulating material called myelin.
3. CHD4 is an essential protein for the proper development of myelin in the peripheral nervous system. When this gene is lost, the myelin producing Schwann cells can no longer properly support the axon it ensheaths. In some instances both the myelin and axon can undergo degeneration. In this image the pink regions are the axons that run the length of the nerve, the black borders are the insulating myelin, and the circular objects are areas where the myelin has unraveled and the exposed sections of axon are dying."
Holly Hung, graduate student
Cellular and Molecular Pathology
093_Faulty wiring
"1. This image is a lengthwise section through mouse sciatic nerve taken with an electron microscope.
2. When you decide to pick up a glass to drink or kick a ball, the signals that active your muscles must travel as an electrical impulse down the length of your nerves. To speed up this process, the nerve axons are covered with an insulating material called myelin.
3. CHD4 is an essential protein for the proper development of myelin in the peripheral nervous system. When this gene is lost, the myelin producing Schwann cells can no longer properly support the axon it ensheaths. In some instances both the myelin and axon can undergo degeneration. In this image the pink regions are the axons that run the length of the nerve, the black borders are the insulating myelin, and the circular objects are areas where the myelin has unraveled and the exposed sections of axon are dying."
Holly Hung, graduate student
Cellular and Molecular Pathology