How to Use myelin in a Sentence

myelin

noun
  • One of the most surprising of these new findings involves myelin.
    — R. Douglas Fields, Scientific American, 12 Mar. 2020
  • These cells will leave the lymph nodes and actually defend myelin.
    — Tim Prudente, baltimoresun.com, 28 Apr. 2017
  • Without myelin, signals that would normally rapidly fire across nerves are slowed or blocked.
    — Kaitlin Sullivan, NBC news, 15 Mar. 2026
  • But scientists don’t know if extra myelin is a cause or an effect of misophonia.
    — Alison Escalante, Forbes, 14 Sep. 2021
  • These extensions are swaddled in a blubbery layer of fat and protein known as myelin.
    — Jonathan Wosen, STAT, 4 May 2022
  • Think of myelin as a kind of insulation or protective coating for nerve cells.
    — Molly Lotz, The Denver Post, 14 Apr. 2017
  • But when myelin becomes inflamed, perhaps due to a virus, that signal gets disrupted.
    — Erik Lacitis, The Seattle Times, 19 Oct. 2018
  • And that insulation is a fatty and protein-rich tissue called myelin.
    — Marcy Thompson, Scientific American, 16 Apr. 2026
  • The immune system attacks the myelin, or protective sheath, that covers nerve fibers.
    — Kerry Breen, CBS News, 8 June 2024
  • Biotin is thought to play a role in the creation of myelin, the protective layer surrounding nerves in the body.
    — Kirstyn Hill, Pharmd, Mph, Health, 27 Sep. 2024
  • The destruction of the myelin reduces the nerve's ability to function.
    — Stmichaelschool, cleveland.com, 13 Jan. 2018
  • 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
  • In this case, your immune system mistakenly attacks your myelin and damages the myelin sheath.
    — Sara Gaynes Levy, SELF, 7 Mar. 2022
  • 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
  • Over time, learning something new may also help thicken myelin, which is the layer of protein coating the neurons in your brain.
    — Ayana Underwood, SELF, 15 Sep. 2025
  • To pull that off, axons are insulated with myelin, a fatty substance that speeds transmission.
    — Lydia Denworth, Scientific American, 1 Aug. 2021
  • These myelin coatings help electrical signals travel more quickly through children's brains.
    — Sophie Bushwick, Discover Magazine, 18 Sep. 2012
  • In the brain, the bundles of nerve fibers that transfer signals are encapsulated in fatty tissue called myelin.
    — Evan Bush, NBC news, 25 Nov. 2025
  • The outer layer of myelin is attached to the axon adjacent to the perinodal astrocytes.
    — R. Douglas Fields, Scientific American, 12 Mar. 2020
  • Drugs that control myelin production could provide new approaches to treating these problems.
    — R. Douglas Fields, Scientific American, 12 Mar. 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
  • Your body also needs the mineral to help make myelin, a protein that wraps protectively around nerve cells to help amplify all those signals.
    — Lizzy Briskin, SELF, 26 Mar. 2024
  • 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
  • Glatiramer acetate is injected under your skin to help prevent your immune system from attacking your myelin.
    — Korin Miller, SELF, 12 Nov. 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
  • Without myelin, crucial signals between the brain and the body become garbled or simply go missing entirely.
    — Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 27 June 2018
  • 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
  • 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
  • As expected, the decrease in oligodendrocytes was also accompanied by a loss of myelin.
    — William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 2 Aug. 2022
  • 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

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: