How to Use myelin in a Sentence

myelin

noun
  • As more and more myelin gets destroyed—a process called demyelination1—M.S. symptoms pop up.
    Sara Gaynes Levy, SELF, 19 Apr. 2022
  • One of the most surprising of these new findings involves myelin.
    R. Douglas Fields, Scientific American, 12 Mar. 2020
  • The destruction of the myelin reduces the nerve's ability to function.
    Stmichaelschool, cleveland.com, 13 Jan. 2018
  • These cells will leave the lymph nodes and actually defend myelin.
    Tim Prudente, baltimoresun.com, 28 Apr. 2017
  • The immune systems eats away at the fatty sheathing that covers and protects the nerve fibers in these areas (myelin).
    Carolyn L. Todd, SELF, 22 Oct. 2018
  • Based on their findings, the researchers say that VGF also promotes the regrowth of myelin in our nervous system.
    Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 11 Oct. 2016
  • These extensions are swaddled in a blubbery layer of fat and protein known as myelin.
    Jonathan Wosen, STAT, 4 May 2022
  • An analogy sometimes given is that the nervous system is like the wiring of a lamp, and the myelin like the wiring’s protective sheath; when that sheath wears away, so much can go wrong.
    Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 17 July 2023
  • Think of myelin as a kind of insulation or protective coating for nerve cells.
    Molly Lotz, The Denver Post, 14 Apr. 2017
  • The outer layer of myelin is attached to the axon adjacent to the perinodal astrocytes.
    R. Douglas Fields, Scientific American, 12 Mar. 2020
  • But scientists don’t know if extra myelin is a cause or an effect of misophonia.
    Alison Escalante, Forbes, 14 Sep. 2021
  • So far, there’s no therapy to reverse the harm caused by the disease, in which the immune system attacks the myelin sheath surrounding neurons.
    Naomi Kresge, Bloomberg.com, 17 May 2017
  • But when myelin becomes inflamed, perhaps due to a virus, that signal gets disrupted.
    Erik Lacitis, The Seattle Times, 19 Oct. 2018
  • In this case, your immune system mistakenly attacks your myelin and damages the myelin sheath.
    Sara Gaynes Levy, SELF, 7 Mar. 2022
  • The more the myelin is damaged, the more the nerves are interrupted, producing a variety of symptoms that vary in severity.
    Samantha Pell, chicagotribune.com, 20 June 2017
  • MS is a disease of the central nervous system (spinal cord and brain) in which the immune system attacks myelin, the protective coating around nerve fibers.
    Samantha Pell, chicagotribune.com, 20 June 2017
  • This growth in connectivity presents itself as white matter in the brain, which comes from a fatty substance called myelin.
    Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, 8 Sep. 2017
  • Drugs like inhalants can change the structure of the nervous system by destroying myelin: the fatty substance that coats the nerves like insulation.
    Stmichaelschool, cleveland.com, 13 Jan. 2018
  • The prefrontal cortex trims away neural connections that are not needed and begins the process of myelination, or wrapping nerve cells in myelin.
    Molly Lotz, The Denver Post, 14 Apr. 2017
  • That causes damage to your neural cells as well as myelin, a fatty substance that insulates those cells, Dr. Kesari says.
    Korin Miller, SELF, 10 Oct. 2017
  • Specifically, as the Mayo Clinic explains, MS occurs when your immune system attacks the myelin, which is the sheath that protects your nerve fibers.
    Lisa Mulcahy, Good Housekeeping, 5 Oct. 2022
  • In both types of MS, immune system cells attack and strip away myelin, the fatty protective sheathing that insulates nerve cells.
    Linda Marsa, Discover Magazine, 1 Feb. 2018
  • Blocking seizures with the anti-epilepsy drug ethosuximide (sold under the name Zarontin by Pfizer) reduced the thickening of the myelin.
    Jonathan Wosen, STAT, 4 May 2022
  • In cells that make myelin, the substance that insulates and protects nerves, an abundance of sulfatides destroys tissue throughout the brain, spinal cord, and other parts of the nervous system.
    Vibhav Rangarajan, STAT, 5 June 2018
  • His research shows that when a mouse’s ears lose the myelin that insulates the neurons, the critter experiences the symptoms of hidden hearing loss, even though its synapses are fine.
    Popular Science, 21 Jan. 2020
  • Helping that signal travel so fast is insulating material called myelin that covers the nerve cells in the spinal cord.
    Erik Lacitis, The Seattle Times, 19 Oct. 2018
  • The nervous system is especially dependent on B12 because many fatty acids are used to make myelin, the sheaths that wrap our neurons and nerve bundles.
    Nathan H. Lents, Discover Magazine, 13 Aug. 2018
  • To pull that off, axons are insulated with myelin, a fatty substance that speeds transmission.
    Lydia Denworth, Scientific American, 1 Aug. 2021
  • Here, the researchers were looking at a specific neural structures, the myelin sheaths that encapsulate and protect our neurons.
    Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 11 Oct. 2016
  • Without myelin, crucial signals between the brain and the body become garbled or simply go missing entirely.
    Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 27 June 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'myelin.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: