Myelin histology: a key tool in nervous system research García García, Óscar Darío Carriel Araya, Víctor Chato Astrain, Jesús Fluorescence microscopy Histology Light microscopy This work was supported by the Spanish “Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Instituto de Salud Carlos III)”, Grant FIS PI20-0318 co-financed by “Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional ERDF-FEDER European Union”; Grant P18-RT-5059 “Plan Andaluz de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación (PAIDI 2020), Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades, Junta de Andalucía, España” (all to VC) and Grant PPJIA2022- 19 “Ayudas del plan propio UGR 2022, Plan propio de investigación y transferencia, Universidad de Granada, España” (to JCA and ÓDGG). The myelin sheath is a lipoprotein-rich, multilayered structure capable of increasing conduction velocity in central and peripheral myelinated nerve fibers. Due to the complex structure and composition of myelin, various histological techniques have been developed over the centuries to evaluate myelin under normal, pathological or experimental conditions. Today, methods to assess myelin integrity or content are key tools in both clinical diagnosis and neuroscience research. In this review, we provide an updated summary of the composition and structure of the myelin sheath and discuss some histological procedures, from tissue fixation and processing techniques to the most used and practical myelin histological staining methods. Considering the lipoprotein nature of myelin, the main features and technical details of the different available methods that can be used to evaluate the lipid or protein components of myelin are described, as well as the precise ultrastructural techniques. 2023-09-08T10:01:09Z 2023-09-08T10:01:09Z 2023-05-31 journal article García-García ÓD, Carriel V, Chato-Astrain J (2024) Myelin histology: a key tool in nervous system research. Neural Regen Res 19(2):277-281. [https://doi.org/10.4103/1673-5374.375318] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/84323 10.4103/1673-5374.375318 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ open access Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional Medknow Publications