Regulation of Oligodendrocyte Differentiation: Relevance for Remyelination

A major distinguishing feature of the vertebrate nervous system is the formation of myelin sheaths. The myelin sheath has two main functions. First, it electrically insulates the axon thereby enabling saltatory conduction and highly increasing conduction velocity. This also strongly reduces energy consumption since restoration of ion gradients occurs only at the nodes of Ranvier (i.e. at less than 1 % of the axonal surface). Second, the myelin sheath is important for trophic support and protection of the axon (Nave, 2010).