myelin

American  

[mahy-uh-lin] / ˈmaɪ ə lɪn /

Also myeline

noun

Biology.

1. a soft, white, fatty material in the membrane of Schwann cells and certain neuroglial cells: the substance of the myelin sheath.

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myelin British  

/ ˈmaɪɪˌliːn, ˈmaɪɪlɪn /

noun

1. a white tissue forming an insulating sheath ( myelin sheath ) around certain nerve fibres. Damage to the myelin sheath causes neurological disease, as in multiple sclerosis

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myelin Scientific  

/ mī′ə-lĭn /

1. A whitish, fatty substance that forms a sheath around many vertebrate nerve fibers. Myelin insulates the nerves and permits the rapid transmission of nerve impulses. The white matter of the brain is composed of nerve fibers covered in myelin.

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Other Word Forms

• myelinic
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of myelin

First recorded in 1865–70; myel- + -in ²

Example Sentences

Myelin regeneration treatment also could be helpful for people recovering from brain and spinal cord injuries.

From Science Daily • May 2, 2024

Over 10 years, first for the Myelin Repair Foundation and then for the MS Society, he has made six tandem sky-diving jumps.

From New York Times • Jan. 14, 2022

Myelin plasticity is important for brain waves because the proper conduction velocity is necessary to sustain oscillations that couple two regions of the brain at the same frequency.

From Scientific American • Mar. 12, 2020

Myelin sheaths can extend for one or two millimeters, depending on the diameter of the axon.

From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013

Myelin is often likened to the plastic coating around electrical wires—it insulates the neural circuits, making them about a hundred times faster than unmyelinated circuits.

From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater