Nerve (100x objective lens)

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This very high magnification view shows a nerve that has been teased apart and stained with the heavy metal, osmium, to reveal individual myelinated nerve fibers. What is primarily visible are the Schwann cells that form the myelin sheath. The axons are just visible in some places as a dark line in the center of the myelin sheath. Where adjacent Schwann cells abut one another they form a node of Ranvier, which appears as a dark or bright line, perpendicular to the long axis of nerve fiber.

 

Stain = Osmium

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