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Glia

Gathering at the nodes

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 6, page 664 (2005)Cite this article

The formation of the nodes of Ranvier is specified by the myelinating cells, not the axons, and an important component of this process in the peripheral nervous system is the extension of microvilli by Schwann cells. These microvilli contact the axons at the nodes, and it is here that the Schwann cells express the newly discovered protein gliomedin.

Eshed et al. showed that gliomedin is a ligand for two axonal cell adhesion molecules — neurofascin and NrCAM — that are found at the nodes of Ranvier, where they interact with Na+ channels. When the authors either disrupted the localization of gliomedin by using a soluble fusion protein that contained the extracellular domain of neurofascin, or used RNA interference to suppress the expression of gliomedin, the characteristic clustering of Na+ channels at the nodes of Ranvier did not occur.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Eshed, Y. et al. Gliomedin mediates Schwann cell–axon interaction and the molecular assembly of the nodes of Ranvier. Neuron 47, 215–229 (2005)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Sherman, D. L. & Brophy, P. J. Mechanisms of axon ensheathment and myelin growth. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 6, 683–690 (2005)

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Authors
  1. Rachel Jones
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Jones, R. Gathering at the nodes. Nat Rev Neurosci 6, 664 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1758

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1758

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