Editing Node of Ranvier (section)

==History==
[[Image:Louis-Antoine Ranvier.jpg|thumb|left|Louis Antoine Ranvier (1835–1922)]]

The myelin sheath of long nerves was discovered and named by German [[Pathology|pathological]] anatomist [[Rudolf Virchow]]<ref>{{WhoNamedIt|synd|3816}}</ref> in 1854.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Virchow R | year = 1854 | title = Über das ausgebreitete Vorkommen einer dem Nervenmark analogen Substanz in den tierischen Geweben | url = https://zenodo.org/record/2244577| journal = Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für klinische Medicin | volume = 6 | issue = 4| pages = 562–572 | doi=10.1007/BF02116709| s2cid = 20120269 }}</ref>  French pathologist and anatomist [[Louis-Antoine Ranvier]] later discovered the nodes, or gaps, in the myelin sheath that now bear his name. Born in [[Lyon]], Ranvier was one of the most prominent [[Histology|histologists]] of the late 19th century. Ranvier abandoned pathological studies in 1867 and became an assistant of physiologist [[Claude Bernard]]. He was the chairman of General Anatomy at the [[Collège de France]] in 1875.

Ranvier discovered the nodes in 1878.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ranvier |first1=Louis-Antoine |title=Contributions à l'histologie et à la physiologie des nerfs périphériques. |journal=Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences |date=1871 |volume=73}}</ref> Using staining techniques developed by [[Ludwig Mauthner]], he noticed that myelinated axons were only stained at regular intervals, leading to the discovery of the nodes. Reportedly, he dismissed the idea of nodes in the [[Central nervous system|CNS]] although their existence was proven later.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tourneux, F. L. G. R., and R. Le Goff |title=Note sur les étranglements des tubes nerveux de la moelle épinière. |journal=Journ. De l'Anat. Et de la Phys |date=1875}}</ref>

His refined histological techniques and his work on both injured and normal [[nerve]] fibers became world-renowned. His observations on fiber nodes and the degeneration and regeneration of cut fibers had a great influence on Parisian neurology at the [[Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital|Salpêtrière]]. Soon afterwards, he discovered gaps in sheaths of nerve fibers, which were later called the Nodes of Ranvier.   This discovery later led Ranvier to careful histological examination of myelin sheaths and Schwann cells.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Barbara J.G. | year = 2005 | title = Les étranglements annulaires de Louis Ranvier (1871) | url =http://hal.inria.fr/docs/00/08/59/79/PDF/Jean-Gael_Barbara_Ranvier_LdN28_2005.pdf | journal = Lettre des Neurosciences | volume = 28 | pages = 3–5 }}</ref>