Myelinates

Myelinates is the third-person singular present tense form of the verb to myelinate, meaning to form a myelin sheath around nerve fibers. In vertebrates, this process is carried out by glial cells: oligodendrocytes in the central nervous system and Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system. Myelination increases electrical resistance across the axonal membrane and enables rapid saltatory conduction of action potentials, improving the speed and efficiency of neural signaling.

Myelination occurs during development and can also occur during repair after injury. In the CNS, an oligodendrocyte can extend processes to multiple axons, wrapping segments to create compact myelin rich in lipids and specific proteins such as myelin basic protein and proteolipid protein. In the PNS, a single Schwann cell myelinates one segment of an axon. The gaps between segments, called nodes of Ranvier, support rapid impulse propagation.

Disorders of myelination disrupt conduction and underlie diseases such as multiple sclerosis (CNS) and Guillain-Barré syndrome (PNS). While myelinates is a correct but rarely used form, most writers prefer myelinate or myelination.